You Make Me Smile
by shippingshipperwhoships
Summary: All Kurt wanted was to get some coffee, preferably without thinking about his (ex?)boyfriend. As it turns out he's going to get a lot more than expected.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: You Make Me Smile**

**Summary: All Kurt wanted was to get some coffee, preferably without thinking about his (ex?)boyfriend. As it turns out he's going to get a lot more than expected.**

**Warnings: I wouldn't call it bashing, but canon events are used, casting Blaine in an unfavorable light. Also, this chapter is completely tame, but there are plans for future smut.**

**Spoilers: Definite spoilers for The Break Up. Also for Dance With Somebody, other than that nothing blatant that I can think of.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, things would be so different it's pretty ridiculous.**

**A/N: Sooo, this is my first Glee fic, ever. Also the first thing I've written period in over a year. So If it's complete and utter crap, I'm just gonna go ahead and blame it on me being realllly rusty. Also the first time I've actually posted something, though I've been reading fanfiction for yearrrssssssss.**

**Originally planned for this to be a oneshot, it has now become a multi-chapter… thing. Not sure how long yet, but definitely more than the one and then two chapters I had planned.**

**This is a Kurtbastian fic, and Sebastian could be considered OOC possibly? But considering the last we saw of him on the show he was meant to be turning over a new leaf I just went with it.**

**Also, this is unbetaed, any mistakes are my own, and considering it's 10:30 in the morning and I haven't slept… just, yeah.**

**Long A/N is long. That is all.**

Coffee. Kurt Hummel needed coffee, desperately. Preferably from an actual café, and not made by the cheap coffee pot at the loft, or the god awful sludge that seemed to be the only thing anyone could make at Voguedotcom.

The problem was that he hadn't stepped foot inside a single coffee shop in two weeks, or to be more accurate, two weeks, five days, four hours and about 35 minutes. Not that he was counting or anything. He hadn't even realized he was doing it at first, he just told himself he had clearly been in too much of a hurry to stop for coffee, or anything else for that matter. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of money he spent on his caffeine addiction, cutting back was definitely a good thing. He had mostly just lucked out at work, managing to not be around when someone was looking for an intern to send on a coffee run. Which was a miracle in itself, Kurt wasn't really used to being lucky.

It had taken him a week to admit to himself that his avoidance had more to do with his break up with Blaine than anything else.

Or, non-break up, fight, confession, whatever it was. After all, you had to actually talk to someone to break up with them, right? And he still hadn't spoken to his boyfriend, ex-boyfriend? Despite the flowers, notes begging for forgiveness, texts and voicemails that had all begun to slow from an outpour to an inconsistent trickle and ending completely five days ago with a single text.

_I love you so much; please call me when you're ready to talk. I know we can work this out. I'm sorry._

He hadn't spoken to Blaine because he wasn't sure if he _could_ forgive the other boy and he wasn't completely ready to think about what that would mean. Throughout his constantly shifting emotions, ranging from anger, betrayal, heartbreak and confusion, not to mention time spent imagining and re-imagining conversations with Blaine, he had yet to be able to feel anything resembling forgiveness.

But Blaine was not his immediate problem, right now he needed a non-fat mocha, and he needed it _now_. His immediate problem was that he was letting the memories of his (ex?)boyfriend keep him from walking into a damn Starbucks that they had never even been to together. He'd been standing in front of said Starbucks, just staring blankly at the door for about five minutes now, certainly long enough for him to look like a complete moron, or crazy.

"Pull yourself together Kurt, open the stupid door, walk in and get your coffee and then leave." He groaned at the realization that he was talking to himself, if he hadn't looked crazy before he certainly did now.

The irritation with himself served a purpose at least, he finally managed to take the six steps between him and the door and actually walk in. He paused for only a few seconds in the entryway to shove all ridiculously overdramatic thoughts of Blaine and the crazy link in his own head between the boy and coffee and all coffee related things to the back of his mind.

With a deep breath he propelled himself forward to smile at the overly cheerful barista, "Grande non-fat mocha."

He hoped he didn't flinch noticeably when another barista sat a cup down at the other end of the counter with a call of "grande drip."

"Freaking seriously?" He muttered to himself, the universe obviously hated him.

As soon as his drink order was called he was snatching it up, prepared to get the hell out of the shop, hopefully before he could manage to drive himself completely insane. His haste to get out of the store, combined with tunnel vision zoned in on the door meant that he didn't hear it at first.

"Gay face! It _is _you! I thought so, but there are so many fashion minded women in New York I thought you might actually _be_ a woman."

Kurt froze momentarily before turning very slowly, convinced that when he managed to make the full turn the condescending comment would have just been a figment of his imagination, brought on by the fairly ridiculous amount of stress he had managed to give himself in his quest for coffee.

Instead, he came face to face with Sebastian Smythe.

What had he been thinking about the universe earlier? Something about an all-encompassing hatred of one Kurt Elizabeth Hummel? Yes, that sounded about right.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Sebastian brought a hand up to his heart, somehow managing to arrange his features into both an amused smirk and mock hurt. "Aw, c'mon Hummel, aren't you happy to see me? I know I probably shouldn't have opened with the gay face thing or the clothes, considering the truce and everything. But really, sarcasm just seems to be my default setting around you, I think we both know you secretly like it though."

Kurt stared at him in what he was sure was a completely unattractive manner, but it was hard to care when he was so angry. "The truce? The _truce_? Are- are you _serious_? What are you even doing in New York? You got what you wanted all along! I would assume you were here to rub it in my face, but despite your stalkerish tendencies at the Lima Bean I can't imagine you could possibly know I would be here."

"Got what I wanted?" Sebastian had lost the smirk and now just looked surprisingly confused, "What the hell are youtalking about? I go to school here, little place called NYU, maybe you've heard of it? And there were only so many places to get a good cup of coffee in Ohio, the Lima Bean happened to be the only one less than an hour away, I'm not a stalker."

He'd finished the sentence with his lips turning down into something dangerously resembling a pout. Even in his (now admittedly wavering) anger, Kurt couldn't help but think that it would not be fair at all for someone that unfairly good looking to start pouting at him.

"NYU? I thought you were a junior…" he just sort of let his thought fizzle out as he spoke, his own confusion growing. "So you've been in New York since when?"

The other boy definitely looked confused at this point, and perhaps a little exasperated, "A week after graduation, there was no way I was staying in Ohio any longer than necessary. Are you planning to explain your little outburst at any point, Princess?"

A week after graduation, Kurt frowned, "You haven't been back to visit at all?"

Sebastian's eyebrow shot up, and he looked at Kurt expectantly for a moment before answering with an irritated huff, "Seriously? No I haven't been back, if my parents want to see me they come here and I have absolutely no other reason what-so-ever to go back for a visit."

Kurt opened and closed his mouth a few times, his anger, well his anger at the boy in front of him anyway, wiped out completely. Blaine had been telling the truth about not cheating with Sebastian then. He didn't even consider the idea that _Sebastian _could be lying, he didn't think a realm of possibility existed where the jerk (reformed jerk or not) could keep from bragging about sleeping with Blaine. The idea wasn't as pleasant as he might have thought. He had been absolutely sure Sebastian was the only person that Blaine _would _cheat on him with. The tall, sarcastic, asshole _was _gorgeous after all (uncanny resemblance to admittedly cute rodents notwithstanding) and whether he would ever admit it or not, Blaine had been fascinated by Sebastian when they first met, and Kurt had known that. On some deep, dark level that he refused to acknowledge, he even understood it. But knowing that it hadn't been Sebastian, it really had just been some guy, some random guy that wasn't Kurt, somehow that was even worse.

Sebastian was looking at him with something close to concern now. "Okay, seriously Kurt, are you alright?"

He wasn't sure if it was the shock of hearing his actual name come from the other boy or the fact that he just desperately wanted to talk to someone that wasn't living in a fantasy world where it was already decided that eventually Kurt would, not might, but _would_ forgive Blaine for his indiscretions and they would sing and dance their way off into a rainbow colored sunset. Either way, he had absolutely no control over what came out of his mouth next.

"Blaine cheated on me."

Sebastian blinked at him, mouth opening, presumably to respond, but Kurt kept going before he could, still completely lacking his usual steel reinforced filter.

"I thought it was with you, but obviously that assumption was wrong, which means that he just slept with some random guy. I honestly don't know why that's so much worse to me, but it is."

"Blaine. As in the Blaine that refused to sleep with me for like nine months, no matter how hard I tried, Blaine Anderson, cheated on you?"

Kurt started laughing, he couldn't help it, the obvious surprise and offense that had been so clear in Sebastian's reaction to the news was just too much. He brought a hand up to cover his mouth as he laughed hard enough to bring tears to his eyes.

Sebastian, still looking quite offended, and yet again a little concerned for Kurt's well-being, took hold of the smaller boy's arm and led him over to an empty table. "People are staring Hummel, try to calm your hysterics."

An indelicate snort escaped Kurt before he could help it, resulting in a few more uncontrollable giggles. "S-sorry, I'm sorry, I just, this whole thing is so ridiculous."

"Agreed. Was the guy even hot? Because seriously, if he turned me down all that time and then went at it with some fugly random, I will be furious."

Kurt rolled his eyes and finally took a sip of his mocha while he tried not to slip into another uncontainable fit of laughter, "I wouldn't know, I thought it was you remember?"

Sebastian eyed him a bit warily, "Right, and why is that exactly? I hadn't even seen either of you since Regionals last year. The little Hobbit didn't say it was me did he? Because actually being involved is one thing, but I don't appreciate getting all the blame and none of the rewards."

"Nice, very nice Meerkat," Kurt's face scrunched up in obvious distaste, but Sebastian merely smirked at him. "But no, he actually said it wasn't you when I asked, but I suppose in my head you were the only possibility, I mean, who else could it be? As I said though, I was obviously wrong."

Sebastian leaned back in his seat, long arms coming to cross over his chest, eyeing Kurt with something unreadable in his expression. "Well, who would have thought it, you and Wonderboy broken up? To be honest I always kind of thought the two of you were the illusive real deal."

"We're not broken up," Kurt muttered, wavering slightly when both of Sebastian's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"I haven't spoken to him _to_ break up with him. But then, I guess… Is a break up implied when you don't speak to the other person for almost three weeks after they confess to infidelity?"

It was Sebastian's turn to laugh, "I wouldn't exactly consider myself a relationship expert, Hummel, that's not really something I have too much experience with. Sex on the other hand is a completely different story."

He continued to watch Kurt, that same unreadable, something, in his eyes, "So you haven't broken up with him, even though he cheated. Gotta say I'm a little surprised, you don't seem like the type to put up with a guy stepping out on you. Didn't think lying down and taking it would be an option for you either, even from Blaine. Are you going to break up with him, or are you just letting him suffer before you take him back?"

Kurt could actually feel himself flinch at the part about just taking it, "Yes, well like you said Craigslist, you wouldn't know anything about relationships would you? Seeing as yours only last 20 minutes in the backrooms of sleazy clubs and probably involve the exchanging of venereal diseases."

He stood, picking up his coffee and intending to leave as quickly as possible, but Sebastian was in his path before he could even take a step. "Hold up Casper the Fashionable Ghost, I didn't actually mean to upset you, I was just surprised by the entire situation. Sit down."

Currently very blue eyes stared stubbornly past Sebastian's shoulder towards the door and he made to step aside so that he could walk past the former Warbler, only to have his movement halted by a hand on his arm.

"Let me go Smythe, I have better things to do than sit here and listen to you tell me how pathetic I am."

The grip on his bicep tightened momentarily, not anywhere near enough to hurt, but enough to make its presence known and compel Kurt to actually look at Sebastian. As soon as he realized he had Kurt's attention he started talking again.

"I really am sorry; I genuinely didn't mean to upset you. Please sit down Kurt."

Kurt didn't even care that he was gaping like an idiot, Sebastian Smythe had just apologized to him for the second time in their history, said please, and that was twice in one meeting that he'd used Kurt's name. That infuriatingly unreadable, thing, in those green eyes was now accompanied by something that was terrifyingly close to desperation.

Wordlessly, Kurt set his cup back down on the table and slipped his arm out of Sebastian's grasp. He took his seat and made a show of crossing his legs, and then his arms over his chest, leveling a cool stare at the still standing boy. When he spoke, his words had a touch of warmth to them that betrayed the look and unfriendly posture.

"I'm willing to allow you a few more minutes of my time, are you planning to sit back down, or are you going to stand there staring at me like a moron, Chipmunk?"

Sebastian actually smiled, honest to God smiled, at him, no smirk in sight.

Kurt was positive it was something off about the sip of coffee he'd just taken that caused the random sensation of butterflies fluttering around his stomach. Because it was most definitely not the criminal chipmunk's smile doing strange things to him, Blaine or no Blaine.

"Your generosity astounds me Princess. Thank you ever so much for your time!" Sebastian gave a mocking bow as he returned to his seat.

Kurt hid his smile behind his cup; he could actually bring himself to admit that this was mildly enjoyable, the snarky comments and mild sarcasm, now lacking all the bite and intent to hurt they'd held a year ago.

"Well, Sebastian," the name felt strange on his tongue in such a neutral context, but he supposed if the other boy could manage first name basis, then so could he. "You wanted me to stay, and I'm here, are you just going to sit there and stare at me, or are you going to talk at some point."

He was smirking again, _Not that he's unattractive when he smirks, but now that I've seen him smile, it seems to pale in comparison. _Kurt viciously squashed down the traitorous little sliver of a thought, appalled by the obviously disturbed voice in his head. Clearly he was being impacted by this whole confusing (non)breakup business more than he thought, and it wasn't surprising that the sudden presence of a mildly attractive, gay, male, whether it was Sebastian Smythe or not, would affect him. After all it had been over a month since he had actually _been _with Blaine, and Sebastian kept looking at him with that weird emotion in his eyes that Kurt still couldn't identify.

Sebastian's lips tilted up into an almost smile, "If I ask you more about Blaine will you flip out and try to leave again?"

Kurt frowned and thoughtfully traced a finger down the side of his coffee cup. "It depends on what you plan on asking I suppose."

"I'm mostly just curious about why you haven't tossed him to the curb I suppose." Sebastian answered with a shrug, his eyes following Kurt's fingers on the cup. "I meant what I said earlier, just not in the context you took it in; I don't see you as someone who would just take that kind of crap. Partially because you fought me so hard when _I_ was going after Blaine last year, no matter how much of a dick I was."

Not knowing how to answer immediately, Kurt took another sip of his drink, stalling for time. He simply stared out the window out onto the busy street for a moment, surprised when Sebastian didn't push for an answer, simply allowing the delay.

"I was going to," he finally started, once again kind of glad he had someone to talk to about it, even if it was someone completely unexpected.

Sebastian was looking at him, confused again, so he quickly began to elaborate, "Break up with him; I was going to break up with him. We'd been planning for him to come see me in two weeks when he cheated. He couldn't even keep it in his damn pants for two weeks and then he blamed me."

"Wait, what?" Sebastian still looked confused, but Kurt was shocked to find that he actually looked a little angry as well. "He blamed _you_ for _his _cheating? And you still didn't break up with him?"

Kurt laughed, though the sound was hollow and completely lacking any form of humor, "He told me that he needed me but that I wasn't there, and that he was lonely."

He paused again, each time he talked about it he found himself a little less sad and lot angrier. At the time he'd just been heartbroken and even felt a little guilty, knowing that he _had_ been incredibly busy since he moved to New York, and he it was true that he hadn't been able to give Blaine as much attention, but dammit that did not make _cheating_ an acceptable pastime, now he felt something akin to disbelief at the situation.

"He left the next morning before we had a chance to talk, and I had every intention of just calling him up to end it. But it seemed like every time I talked to someone about it, they started implying that I shouldn't do anything rash. I shouldn't be throwing a two year relationship away just like that, considering I would obviously forgive him eventually and wouldn't it be best if when, _when_ not if, I took him back and forgave him, that I hadn't done anything I would regret. Like it was inevitable, like no matter what he does, I have to forgive him for it and just let things slide."

Sebastian was staring at him now, looking like he was going to say something, but Kurt was on a roll, finally able to say all the things he'd wanted to say to Rachel and all the other old glee friends he'd talked to since the incident.

"Did you know that I met another gay guy last year?" He didn't actually pause to let Sebastian answer. "Chandler, he was the third out guy our age I'd ever met, we met when I was looking for sheet music for a glee assignment, and Blaine had refused to accompany me. He was a nice guy, a little out there and amusingly flirty. It was all a bit of a novelty for me, I can completely own up to that, I've never had a guy interested in me that I didn't have to chase, even Blaine, _especially, _Blaine. We exchanged numbers and he started texting me atrocious pick-up lines, and considering all the time Blaine had spent texting you, I honestly never thought there was anything wrong with it. At least that's what I was always told when I complained about Blaine texting you."

He paused to take a breath, meeting Sebastian's eyes to find that the other boy was watching him, seemingly fascinated, "Go on."

Kurt floundered for a moment, usually this was where people started telling him how perfect Blaine was and that yes actually, Kurt, you kind of were in the wrong there.

"W-well, Blaine and I were at my house one night, and I left the room for a little while and when I came back he'd been going through my text messages. And, seriously, they were all completely ridiculous, things like, 'Are you an astronaut? Because your smile is out of this world' and I think there was something about Cleopatra and having a great asp."

Sebastian snorted into his coffee but gestured for Kurt to continue. "He insisted it was cheating, and when I brought up him doing the same thing with you, he insisted the entire exchange between the two of you was 'family friendly' though I've never been able to figure out how he considered Chandler's texts to be anything else."

It only took a glance at Sebastian's half amused and half offended face to know that whatever had been in his texts to Blaine, they hadn't had a PG rating.

"The next day he sang It's Not Right But It's Okay to me in front of the entire glee club after proclaiming that it was for anyone who had been cheated on. Of course that club was full of some of the worst gossip mongers in the history of high school, so I pretty much never heard the end of it after that. In response I sang I Have Nothing, which landed us in the guidance counselor's office where he eventually confessed that he'd been ignoring me so that he could practice for when I wouldn't be around when I came to New York."

"I'd ask if you were serious, but you so obviously are that I can't even doubt you," Sebastian muttered. He ran a hand through his hair, frowning down at his coffee, seemingly trying to think of something to say. "I don't get it though, I mean, just because your clearly demented friends live in an apparent fantasy world where the Hobbit is perfect and everything is rainbows and roses, if it's not what you want then why didn't you break up with him anyway?"

Kurt couldn't help but be amused, "You know, you seemed to think the Hobbit was pretty perfect yourself last year."

"No, I thought he was hot and I wanted to fuck him, I never thought he was perfect, and since we're being honest, my whole going after Blaine thing actually didn't stay about Blaine for very long."

Blinking at him, Kurt was a little proud of himself for not blushing when the word fuck came out of Sebastian's mouth, sounding undeniably dirty. Then the rest of the sentence caught up with him. "What do you mean? It wasn't about Blaine for very long?"

Sebastian was studying him now, like he was looking for something before he answered the question. Kurt just lifted a single brow, giving him a mild 'bitch please' face, which seemed to be good enough for Sebastian.

"I wanted Blaine at first, I mean, the bashful school boy thing was pretty sexy, but then I met you and getting you all riled up was even more fun than trying to get in Blaine's pants. Not to mention I'm fairly good at reading people and it didn't take very long to realize that the school boy act wasn't an act, and I really don't do cutesy vanilla stuff which in my experience is what guys like Blaine are into."

"So, you kept going after Blaine solely because you liked pissing me off? So," he paused, so far their conversation had been surprisingly light, considering the subject matter, he wasn't sure if it would stay that way after his next question. "What about the slushie? I mean, you were aiming it at me and…"

He drifted off, leaving the question open ended and watching Sebastian carefully.

"I never wanted to actually _hurt_ anyone with that stupid slushie; I wanted to screw up your clothes, and that's exactly what would have happened if Blaine's short ass hadn't jumped in front of you."

Kurt was a little surprised when his immediate response to hearing this was to laugh, and not the borderline hysterical or the humorless laughter from earlier, but genuine laughter.

"You aren't allowed to start freaking out on me again, Kurt," Sebastian deadpanned.

Waving off his own laughter, Kurt shook his head, "I'm not, promise. I just couldn't help it, I mean, it's not funny that Blaine got hurt; I swear that's not why I was laughing. It's just, you wanted to hurt my _clothes_!"

Still fighting off a few straggling giggles; Kurt buried his face in his hands before looking back up at the boy across from him. "I guess it's not really funny at all, I just-"

He shrugged helplessly. But instead of snarking at him or laughing at Kurt's helplessness, Sebastian was smiling at him again. "Maybe you just needed to laugh?"

Kurt's breath caught a little at that stupid smile and that stupid _look_ in Sebastian's eyes, it was maybe, _possibly_, becoming a little more recognizable. "Umm, yeah, I guess so. So, you had more fun trying to irritate me than trying to get in Blaine's pants? I think I might be a little weirdly flattered."

Sebastian laughed this time, a ridiculously adorable sound, and Kurt realized he'd never heard the other boy laugh before, which probably shouldn't be so surprising considering their relationship.

"You should be, if I'd thought I had a chance in hell of getting you away from Blaine after our unfortunate first meeting, I'd have gone after you."

"Oh my God, you are so full of it," Kurt managed through his laughter. "You are so not and have never been attracted to me!"

A strangely petulant expression settled across Sebastian's face, "Oh? What makes you think it's so impossible?"

"I- I," Kurt's laughter slowly faded, a touch of uncertainty slipping into it, "I have a gay face remember? And there was something about a Puerto Rican pride float and old Betty White…"

He let the words just sort of drift off as he took just how intensely Sebastian was watching him, "Uh…"

"So, I guess that means that you must really think I look like a smirky meerkat, smell like Craigslist, and have gigantic horse teeth?"

There was no fighting off the blush that immediately began creeping over his cheeks and down his neck. But that didn't keep him from attempting to play the whole thing down. He sniffed and held his head up higher. "Of course I do, you _are_ a smirky little meerkat, you _do_ smell like Craigslist, and you _do _have gigantic horse teeth."

To his surprise Sebastian just kept smiling at him, "Right, of course, my apologies. Give me your phone."

"What?" Kurt asked, bemused.

"You're phone, Princess," Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Let me see it."

Only partially suspicious and a tiny bit trusting, he pulled his smart phone out of his messenger bag and handed it over, forcing himself not to react when Sebastian's fingers brushed his own. Kurt watched curiously as the boy immediately began typing things onto the touch screen, and then as he was sliding Kurt's phone back over to him, a light chiming noise came from his own pocket.

Kurt glanced down at the still lit screen of his phone and found it open to a contact information page, the name read You Know You Think I'm A Sexy Meerkat. The blush that had slowly begun to dissipate was back immediately.

It worsened when his own phone beeped and he opened the text that Sebastian had apparently just sent him, even though he was sitting a few feet away.

_Have coffee with me tomorrow? I happen to have a thing for guys with gay faces, particularly yours. ;)_

Kurt blinked down at his phone, making sure he'd read it correctly. Finally he brought his gaze up to Sebastian's, convinced he would immediately see something in his face that told him the whole thing was a joke. Instead, he found the boy's green eyes focused solely on him, very serious, and that unreadable thing that wasn't so unreadable anymore.

Sebastian _liked _him, Sebastian "I want in your boyfriend's pants" Smythe, liked Kurt Hummel.

"Is this just about sex? Because if you're so good at reading people, then I would think you'd know by now I'm not okay with casual sex."

Sebastian laughed that dorky, adorable laugh again, sending the butterflies in Kurt's stomach into an uproar. "I did pick up on that at some point, yes."

Kurt bit at his lip, still watching Sebastian as though he was going to jump up and declare entire conversation a joke any second now. "Technically I still have a boyfriend."

"Yeah, one that you don't even _want_, for very good reason," Sebastian muttered, almost under his breath. "Anyway, that's why I asked you for coffee, in full daylight, with no expectations of anything else. Until the douche bag is officially your ex, then all bets are off."

"I-," he had to pause and swallow around his suddenly very dry throat, "I'm not sure when I'll be done at work tomorrow. I'm interning at Voguedotcom, the hours can be pretty crazy."

"That's fine, you can just text me when you're done, I'm done with classes by four tomorrow. There's a place about a block over that has better coffee and really good sandwiches, I'll text you the address later."

His eyes never left Kurt's, that half smile still playing over his lips, "Speaking of school, I actually only stopped here to get my fix before I went home to study, I have a stupid amount of homework that needs to be done."

Kurt nodded, looking down at his watch and realizing how long they'd been sitting there, "Oh! Right, I should probably be getting home as well, I'm surprised Rachel hasn't been texting me non-stop. She must have had something going on after her classes today."

"You live with Berry now?"

Kurt nodded, looking up from the preemptive text he was composing to the girl in question, wanting to let her know he would be late before she could get home and start blowing up his phone like the crazy person she is. "Mmhm, she started out in the dorms at NYADA, but then when I moved here we found a place in Bushwick."

"You'll have to tell me more about that tomorrow."

They had made their way to the door by that point, Kurt giving Sebastian another 'bitch please' look when he opened the door for him, but for the sake of how nice things had been going, didn't say anything.

"It's a ridiculous story, believe me."

"It involves _you_, of course it is." Sebastian smirked at him, though the words held more, fondness, than anything else.

Kurt looked the other boy up and down, taking in the dark button up and nicely fitted jeans and no hideous pop collared polo in sight. "You look good."

He froze, wondering what the hell was wrong with him and hoping that perhaps he hadn't actually said it out loud. The grin that immediately overtook Sebastian's default smirk seemed to say otherwise.

"Oh? You think so?"

Kurt groaned, "Oh shut up, you big-headed jerk, all I meant was that this is the first time I've seen you in something besides the Dalton uniform or a disgusting striped polo with a hideously popped collar. You don't look bad like this. Nothing more."

"Riiight, I totally believe you, we've already established that you think I'm a sexy meerkat."

"I _hate_ you!"

Sebastian's grin got even cockier, if that was possible, "No you don't."

Kurt glared, though the expression was admittedly weak, and gestured to his right. "Well, I go this way."

Sebastian sighed, and Kurt was almost certain the other boy didn't want to leave. He groaned internally, this would be so much easier to figure out if it wasn't _Sebastian_.

"And I go that way," Sebastian pointed to the left.

"Right," Kurt nodded, feeling inexplicably nervous all of a sudden, which was of course, absolutely ridiculous. "So, I'll text you tomorrow then, when I have an idea of what time I'll be getting off work."

He got a nod in response, another contemplative look appearing on Sebastian's face as he observed Kurt. It was quickly replaced by another smile when Kurt lifted a brow at him in question. "Right, see you tomorrow then."

Kurt gave him a pathetically lame wave and then immediately turned on his heel, beginning to walk away.

"Kurt! Wait a sec!"

He turned back around, finding Sebastian much closer than he'd expected, "Um, something wro-"

There was a hand at the small of his back, tugging him forward so that he had to bring his hands up to rest against Sebastian's chest to keep himself from tripping over his own feet. Before he could actually comprehend what was happening there was a pair of soft lips on his, not trying for anything more, just a gentle, unexpectedly chaste press of a mouth against his own. Kurt's eyelids fluttered shut and the hand still at the small of his back flexed, giving him the sensation of being grounded. He relaxed into the gentle touch, and Sebastian pulled back, so that their lips were barely touching.

"Just thought I'd give you a little incentive to hurry along with the official break up, I really, _really_ want to ask you to dinner, as in a real date, dinner."

Kurt let his eyes flutter back open as Sebastian pulled away after placing one more kiss against the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, um, g-good incentive," the words came out in a breathless rush, breaking slightly when Sebastian's eyes seemed to darken and he smiled again.

"Goodbye, Kurt."

Yet again, Kurt was standing in front of Starbucks, probably looking like an idiot, this time though, it was completely worth it as it meant being able to watch Sebastian Smythe walk away.

"Oh my God! This is insane." And he was talking to himself again. Wonderful.

* * *

Later that night he was going through his night time moisturizing routine when his phone chimed with an incoming text and he nearly leapt across the room to get to it.

_From: You Know You Think I'm A Sexy Meerkat_

_This so isn't me, it's absolutely ridiculous, and I may deny my own actions at a later date, but I can't wait to see you tomorrow._

He rolled his eyes at the name that he'd meant to change earlier and pressed the edit contact button before he typed up his response.

_To: Sexy Meerkat_

_You're right, it's pretty ridiculous, but I can't wait to see you either. :) _

He started to set the phone down after he pressed send, but then thought better of it and went through his contacts, quickly finding the one he wanted and pressing call before he could freak out and stop himself.

The phone only rang twice before it was answered.

"_Kurt? Oh my God, Kurt! I am so glad you called, I've missed you so much."_

Kurt sighed, "Blaine, stop, please, we need to talk."

**A/N 2: Yeah, so that happened, it pretty much lodged itself into my head immediately after I saw The Break Up and eventually stopped my hysterical sobbing, because yes, I ship Klaine and Kurtbastian. I couldn't help but think about how awesome it would be if Sebastian had actually been a senior last year and ended up in New York, and then ran into Kurt and blah blah blah. This is what came of it all. My regular days off are Wednesdays and Thursdays, so chapter 2 should be up by next Thursday at the latest, but hopefully before then, depends on how much I get to write before/after work.**

**Oh! The title is from the Blue October song of the same name because I listened to it while writing this and it just kind of fit for most of how I was starting to see Kurt and Sebastian in this story, but that could also be the sleep deprivation talking. You should still go listen to it, it's a good song.**

**Reviews are lovely, can I please has some?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Warnings: I wouldn't call it bashing, but canon events are used, casting Blaine in an unfavorable light. Still totally tame, but there will be future smut.**

**Spoilers: Possible spoilers up to The Break Up**

**Disclaimer: If it was mine, this would be in script form and you would be watching it, not reading it.**

**A/N: Okay, so after I posted the first chapter yesterday, or technically the day before yesterday now, I went to work and ended up buying a damn pocket sized notebook so that I could jot down all the stuff that kept popping into my sleep deprived head. My breaks were spent writing on this, and I quickly began to realize I was getting more ideas than were going to fit into the two chapters I had planned. Mostly because I'm so in love with Kurtbastian and I keep thinking of more amusing situations to throw them in.**

**Then I came home and checked my e-mail and was super pleasantly surprised by the amount of e-mails I had on that one chapter, which is awesome because I was pretty positive that it had to suck due to the combination of sleep deprivation and how ridiculously long it had been since I'd written anything.**

**Anyways, point here is that this IS going to be longer than I expected, I have absolutely no idea how long as of this moment, probably not epically so. But then again I clearly have problems making up my mind. I did write out an outline of an epilogue while I was at work though. So the ending is essentially written, as well as several random scenes that popped into my head throughout the day. Now it all just needs to be linked together from beginning to end.**

**Yeah, so, Imma stop running my mouth… or… keyboard now. Onwards to the story!**

Kurt jolted awake, momentarily confused by the ghost of a touch of lips on his and Blaine's voice echoing in his head.

He groaned and turned over to bury his head in his pillow. His dreams had been terribly confusing and more than a little frustrating.

_He'd been standing pressed against Sebastian in the middle of a crowded sidewalk, just as they had the day before. Lips barely touching, a hand fitted perfectly to the small of his back, and Kurt's own fingers clutching at the soft fabric of Sebastian's shirt._

_Then, just as Sebastian had pulled him the tiniest bit closer, slotting their mouths together even more perfectly, Blaine's voice had begun to fill the air around them, though the other boy was nowhere to be seen on the crowded street._

"_**You're still my best friend Kurt, I know I screwed up, but tell me that we can at least still be friends."**_

_Sebastian had pulled away from him looking down at him in confusion, "What's Wonderboy doing here, Princess?"_

_Kurt had frowned, looking around the bustling sidewalk, "But he _isn't_ here."_

* * *

Kurt sighed into his pillow, brain still foggy from sleep; it took a few minutes to realize that it had been snatches from his conversation with Blaine the night before that had filtered into his dream.

_Ugh, my subconscious is _awful_! _He glanced over at his alarm clock, as that hadn't been what had woken him, meaning it was still disgustingly early, even by his standards.

The glowing red 3:21 AM mocked him from his bedside table. He'd only just managed to drift off to sleep about two hours ago, having spent at least an hour and a half on the phone with Blaine.

He rubbed a hand over his face, thoughts drifting to the conversation. It hadn't been nearly as terrible as he had expected, but then it also hadn't exactly been a quaint jaunt through a field of daisies either.

* * *

"_**Kurt? Oh my God, Kurt! I am so glad you called, I've missed you so much."**_

_Kurt sighed, "Blaine, stop, please, we need to talk."_

"_**Yeah, yes, of course, I'm just so glad to hear your voice! I want to work this out so badly, and I know we can!"**_

_The blatant hope and excitement in Blaine's voice actually caused him to flinch. "Blaine, please stop."_

_He could hear Blaine take a shuddering breath over the line, __**"Kurt?"**_

"_I… Blaine," he paused trying to gather his thoughts and desperately hoping to be able to say the things he needed to say without being unnecessarily hurtful. "I don't think I can work this out, Blaine."_

"_**Kurt…"**_

* * *

Kurt must have managed to drift off to sleep sometime during his musings because the next thing he knew he was yet again being awakened by something that was not his alarm clock.

"Kurt Hummel! Wake up and tell me what this is, immediately!"

He whined and tugged his comforter down just far enough so that he could squint in Rachel's direction. His voice came out muffled by his blankets, "Ughh, I dunno, looks like a crazy woman waving a cell phone at me."

Rachel huffed at him and stomped her way over to his bed where she plopped down right next to his head and shoved his comforter down revealing his entire head. He fixed her with his iciest glare, though he was sure it lacked something, what with the bed head, not to mention terrible dark circles he was sure he had under his eyes.

"Oh my god, what do you _want, _Rachel?"

Her phone was shoved abruptly into his face. "Seriously? You woke me up to show me something on Facebook?"

"I am showing you your relationship status, Kurt! What is up with your relationship status?!"

Kurt scowled at her, finally shoving the covers away from his body completely so that he could sit up. "I'm pretty sure it says that I'm single, Rachel. Because that's what I am now."

He yawned, trying to force himself into some semblance of wakefulness. "If you're going to wake me up and yell at me, could you at least tell me what time it is, seeing as you're blocking my view of the clock?"

"It's five twenty-five; your alarm was going to go off in five minutes anyway. Now spill, why are you single all of a sudden? I thought you were waiting things out! Did something happen with Blaine again?"

"It's shockingly simple actually, I called Blaine last night and we broke up. Well, I broke up with him."

He stood and began to make his way around his curtained off bedroom, gathering things for his morning shower.

"You _what?_" Rachel was quickly reaching irritating levels of crazy, especially for so early in the morning. "But, you were going to hold off on doing anything rash and then when you were ready you were going to forgive him! That was the plan!"

Kurt moved over to sit in front of her on his bed, once he was settled so that they were facing each other he reached over and took both of her hands in his. "Rachel, I need you to calm down, listen to what I have to say and then repeat it back to me."

She huffed at him again but nodded her agreement.

"Kurt, you are my best friend. I love you and promise to respect your decisions because they are in fact _your_ decisions involving _your _life."

"Oh Kurt, of course I love you! That's why-"

She cut herself off abruptly at the glare Kurt immediately aimed her way and dutifully recited his words, verbatim. He wasn't surprised in the least when she managed to tack her own spiel to the end.

"I _do _respect your decisions. I guess I just can't get over this idea I have that you and Blaine are soul mates, but that's my hang up, not yours, and if you don't feel that way then I'm obviously wrong and I need to just let it go."

She smiled, "I just want you to be happy you know."

Kurt squeezed her hands once before letting go. "I know that, and that's why I haven't just gotten rid of you, yet anyway."

"I think we both know that if you were going to get rid of me, you would have done it years ago," She retorted, flipping her hair indignantly.

"Not for a lack of trying, my dear. Remember that first make over?" He laughed, "Though it was an admittedly weak attempt."

She giggled, but sobered quickly, "So can I ask what happened with you and Blaine? I mean, the main reason I kept up with the whole thing was because _you_ seemed to agree that the two of you would work things out."

Kurt sighed and stood again, moving to distract himself by picking out his ensemble for the day. "I guess that was mostly me not wanting to let go. I mean, three weeks ago I pretty much thought Blaine was _it_ for me. Then everything just kind of collapsed around me and I let everyone else tell me that things would be okay if I just forgave him. Only, I _couldn't_ forgive him, and I'm not saying I'll hold on to this forever, but I do know that I don't trust him anymore."

He took a deep breath and pulled a fitted white button up from his make shift closet. "If I had left things any longer, or tried to pretend that I was okay with everything, it would have been unfair to both of us. There's just too much… hurt between us now, and I could never handle being with someone with so much mistrust on my part."

She bit her lip, appearing to actually be thinking quite hard about what she was going to say. "How did he take it?"

"He was upset, not that I expected anything else." Kurt winced.

* * *

"_**Kurt…"**_

_He closed his eyes, absolutely hating the way Blaine's voice broke when he said his name. "I think I managed to convince myself for a little while that I could deal with this. If I just took the time and distanced myself from the situation, maybe I could forgive you, but I don't think I know how to forgive this." _

"_**Kurt, please, I could come back to visit again, and we could actually talk this through, we'll work it out."**_

"_Stop, please, I am so sorry that I wasn't there for you when you needed me, but that did not give you an excuse to _cheat_ on me."_

"_**I know, Kurt, I know and I am so, so damn sorry! Just give me another chance, please? I love you so much, that has to still mean something to you!"**_

"_Dammit, of _course_ it still means something to me, you are my first love, my first everything, but now all I can think is that even with how much I loved you I still wasn't good enough."_

"_**Kurt, no, of course you-"**_

_Kurt shook his head, even though Blaine couldn't see the motion, "No Blaine, no matter what you say, you can't change that. I wasn't enough to keep you from cheating; you were going to see me in two weeks, Blaine. Did you even know the guy? Or was he really just a completely random stranger?"_

"_**I am so sorry I ever made you think that."**__ He laughed humorlessly, __**"I don't know how to show you how sorry I am, but I swear I'll keep trying. Please, just let me come see you this weekend, I know things are bad right now, but we've always been able to work through things before, together."**_

_Kurt sighed, "Blaine, I meant what I said, I can't. I cannot deal with that right now; I'm not saying that it is a complete impossibility that we might get back together someday, but not now. Not when you're in Ohio and I'm in New York, and I have absolutely no idea how to trust you."_

* * *

Rachel sighed, "So it really is over between the two of you?"

"Yes, Rachel, it's really over, I'm terribly sorry for your loss." Kurt snapped, perhaps a touch harsher than he'd intended, but he was tired and desperately wanted to get to the point where this wasn't a huge deal anymore.

"You know I didn't mean it that way," she pouted at him, watching as he chose a waist coat and a pair of slacks to go with his shirt. "So, when did you decide all of this anyway? I realize it isn't actually necessary for you to run things past me, but you usually do."

Kurt froze, suddenly wanting to tell her, or at least _someone, _about his unexpected run in with Sebastian. Because the other boy _had_ essentially been the catalyst for his ultimate decision, and it hadn't just been the attraction he'd felt, though that wasn't a complete non-entity. If anything his interest in Sebastian (not to mention Sebastian's interest in _him_) had merely made him decide to break up with Blaine sooner, but it wasn't _why_ he'd broken up with him. Being able to actually _talk_ to someone about what had happened, and have them listen and then tell him that he wasn't wrong for wanting to end things was what had solidified his choice.

He bit his lip and eyed his roommate, who was starting to look a little bewildered.

_Oh screw it._

"Okay, I'm going to tell you something, but you have to remember your promise and chill out when I do because I already know you aren't going to like this."

She grimaced, "Oh no."

"I'm serious Rachel, I'll only tell you if you swear to stay calm, or at least as calm as you're capable of anyway, and leave me and my adult self to make my own choices, no matter your opinion. Swear it!"

"I feel like I'm going to regret this, but okay, I swear."

He held up his pinky, "Gay high five on it."

"Seriously, Kurt? What did you _do_?"

"Just do it, Rachel."

After what was an only slightly melodramatic (Rachel really was going to flip out) pinky swear he attempted to ready himself.

"Okay, so, yesterday after work I went to Starbucks before I came home-"

"Oh! You finally managed to go into a cafe!"

Kurt glared at her, "This will not work if you insist on constantly interrupting, Rachel."

"Sorry!" She immediately mimed zipping her lips closed.

He rolled his eyes. "As I was saying, I stopped at Starbucks and I ended up running into… somebody. Somebody I know from Ohio, someone we _both_ know from Ohio actually."

Rachel already looked like she was going to have a fit and he hadn't even told her who it was yet, he could actually see her going through a list in her head of every male from Ohio they both knew trying to figure it out.

"Well, I ended up kind of blurting out that Blaine had cheated on me and then all of this other stuff that I had kind of been keeping bottled up. Since before the cheating happened actually, and he just listened. He ended up letting me know that he had been and still was attracted to me, and I realized, well, I finally _admitted_, that I was attracted to him too."

He paused, scrutinizing Rachel carefully, she looked like she was about to have a coronary. "Comments so far?"

"It's Karofsky isn't it? This is ridiculous Kurt! Just because you're single now and lonely and probably a little, if not a lot, sad does not mean that you have to go after the first guy that expresses attraction towards you! And since when are you attracted to David Karofsky? This is all just some kind of post traumatic breakup disorder speaking!"

Kurt covered his face with his hands to muffle his laughter. "Okay, seriously rein in on the crazy and remember to calm down for a second!"

"What? Absolutely not, and this is not a humorous situation! Why on earth are you laughing?"

"It's not David, Rachel, seriously calm down and remember, you promised _and_ you pinky swore." He rolled his eyes at her very obvious look of relief.

Relief quickly turned into confusion. "Wait, if it wasn't Karofsky then who was it, besides my dads and Sandy Ryerson I think we've gone through every gay man we knew in Lima. Well, and Chandler, but I never met him, so he's not someone we both know."

Her expression slowly began to shift to horrified and Kurt's eyes widened, "Oh stop it Crazypants I did not meet either of your dads _or _Sandy Ryerson at a freaking Starbucks yesterday!"

The sheepish look she took on implied that at least she seemed to realize exactly how crazy she had been that time.

"And it's not Chandler either. Look, I'll tell you who it is when I'm done okay? Just stop freaking out."

She breathed deeply, "Okay, I'm sorry, keep going."

"Alright, well, like I said, we sort of discussed the fact that we find each other, umm, mutually appealing. Then he had to go, but we exchanged phone numbers and he asked me out for coffee, today actually, after work."

He toyed with a cologne bottle on top of his dresser. "He also told me that he hoped I wasn't going to be attached for much longer because he wanted to ask me out to dinner, as in a real date. That's not a direct quote or anything, but it's a pretty good paraphrase."

Rachel was narrowing her eyes at him now, and he cursed her for seemingly knowing that he was leaving something out.

"He may have also, umm, hemayhavealsokissedmebeforet hat."

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that." Her tone was surprisingly calm, but in a calm before the storm kind of way that let him know that she in fact _had_ understood what he'd said.

Kurt groaned and buried his now burning face in his hands, "I _said_ he may have kissed me before that. He said it was meant to be incentive to make my break up official."

"And you were okay with that?" Now she was the one who was scrutinizing _him_, "Because I know you and that just doesn't really sound like something you would be okay with."

"Surprisingly I was very okay with it actually," he smiled, trying to let her know he was being sincere. "It's not like he slobbered all over me and freaked me out or anything. It was just a very sweet, very chaste kiss."

"And I _have_ been thinking about this, I can practically see the crazy wheels turning in your head. I know this seems really fast and even though he did tell me that he wanted to ask me out I've already decided that I want to take things slower. I want to try to be friends with this guy first, I don't want to turn something that I think has great potential into a crappy rebound thing."

She observed him in silence for a moment before sighing, seemingly in defeat. "Okay, I'm not completely sure about all of this, but I did promise, so I'm going to support you. Are you going to tell me who this guy is now?"

"Uhh," _Come on Hummel, like ripping off a band aid, _he thought to himself.

"It's Sebastian Smythe."

There was complete silence for a total of 48 seconds, he knew because he counted.

"WHAT?!"

* * *

It had taken him 20 minutes to calm Rachel down, 20 minutes and a ridiculous amount of reassurance that he was absolutely positive that Sebastian really had changed for the better.

The only reason he had even managed to escape and wasn't _still_ trying to convince her was that she had a 7 AM class and had to leave. Now he was hurrying through his morning routine, because she had completely thrown off his regular schedule.

He was just heading towards the bathroom to shower when his phone chimed on his bedside table. He nearly left it but the thought that it might be Sebastian propelled him across the room.

_From: Sexy Meerkat_

_Morning Beautiful, looking forward to seeing you later. I was thinking we could go to the Macaron Café? It should be pretty close to work for you. _

Kurt smiled, very conscious of the blush creeping down his neck at the "Morning Beautiful" part of the text. His smile faded a little when he thought about telling Sebastian that he just wanted to be friends, at least for now.

He was completely convinced that Sebastian had changed, but he wasn't sure how the other boy would react to being temporarily friend-zoned. But he had meant what he said to Rachel, he didn't want Sebastian to be a rebound.

Sighing, he typed up his response.

_To: Sexy Meerkat_

_:) I've never been there but I've walked past it, sounds great! I should get off around five but I'll let you know a more definite time later._

He bit at his lip as he stared down at his phone once again thinking about his conversation with Blaine the night before. He got the feeling Sebastian would be about as pleased with Kurt's decision to remain friends with Blaine as he would be with his decision to _only_ be friends with Sebastian himself.

* * *

_There was a sniffling sound that couldn't be anything but Blaine crying, __**"We can still be friends right?"**_

"_Blaine I-"_

"_**No wait, I know I hurt you, and I have absolutely no right after what I did, but I don't think I can handle losing my best friend and you **_**are**_** still my best friend Kurt, I know I screwed up, but tell me that we can at least still be friends."**_

_Kurt carefully wiped tears from his eyes, "Of course we're still friends."_

"_**Thank you, Kurt."**__ He took a deep breath and then kept going, __**"I know you don't want to hear this right now, but I'm not just going to give up. I know you said that we can't be together right now, but I'll be in New York in less than a year, and you did say that isn't a complete impossibility."**_

"_Blaine," Kurt tried to keep his frustration out of his voice, and he thought desperately about what he should say, not wanting to give his now official ex-boyfriend any false hope for the future, but not wanting to be cruel either. "I met someone."_

_He spoke the words gently, listening as the other line became completely still._

"_**O-oh?"**_

"_It's not anything serious; we're going to have coffee tomorrow, just as friends, but he made it more than obvious that he would like to ask me out. He knows that things are slightly complicated with me right now and that I technically wasn't considering myself single. But he also knows that I was planning on, um, ending things soon and he agreed to wait until then to ask me out."_

_It was so quiet that for a moment he wondered if he'd taken things too far and Blaine had hung up, but then he heard a rustling of movement in the background. "Blaine?"_

"_**Sorry, umm, so I take it that means you want this guy to ask you out? For more than coffee I mean?"**_

_Kurt shifted a little uncomfortably. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to get through to you about not being able to work things out right now, I didn't mean to get into this whole, thing."_

_Blaine laughed, though it was certainly a bit weak. __**"No, no, it's uh, it's okay. We're friends right? I can handle it. So, the guy, you want to go out with him? Is he from work or something?"**_

"_No," Kurt sighed, he had absolutely no intention whatsoever of telling Blaine that he'd been talking about Sebastian Smythe. "He's not from work, we knew each other from Ohio actually, we just happened to meet at a Starbucks close to work yesterday."_

_He knew that Blaine would have noticed Kurt's very obvious refusal to answer his original question, but thankfully he didn't push the issue, nor did he ask any more questions about Kurt's unnamed suitor._

_Kurt quickly pointed out the time after that, reminding Blaine that he had school in the morning and Kurt himself had work._

* * *

His phone chimed in his hand, drawing him out of his thoughts.

_From: Sexy Meerkat_

_I'll be waiting, and spending the rest of the day thinking about you. ;)_

Kurt groaned and tossed the phone on his bed and then rushed to his further delayed shower. If his schedule hadn't been thrown off earlier, it definitely was now.

Why couldn't anything in his life ever just be simple?

**A/N: Yay, new chapter!**

**So, as I said, this is officially a multi-chaptered fic now, just not sure how long it will be. I know there was an obvious lack of Seb in this chapter, but I wanted to get through the Blaine and Rachel of it all, the next chapter will be all about the Kurtbastian interaction. **

**As of right now the next chapter should be up on Thursday, I plan on making that my regular posting day. Unfortunately updates won't all be coming as quickly as this one, but I want to get at least a few chapters written up so that I'm not trying to rush anything, as I am wont to do when I'm not a little ahead of a schedule I set for myself.**

**The conversation with Blaine came out a little angstier than I intended and a lot longer, which is why it got split up and flashback formatted. Also hope I did the Hummelberry interaction justice.**

**Also, mucho mucho love to the people who have reviewed, followed, and favorite-d (yeah, so that's not a word) because I probably would have just left this off as a one or twoshot and assumed that no one wanted to read my crap without it. I would definitely be missing out, cause I'm really having fun writing this, so, seriously super awesome sauce people! =D **

**Maybe one day I'll be able to post a chapter without ridiculously long a/n's, maybe.**

**Reviews are love… ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Warnings: I wouldn't call it bashing, but canon events are used, casting Blaine in an unfavorable light. Also, this chapter is completely tame, but there are plans for future smut.**

**Spoilers: Definite spoilers for The Break Up. There is mention of a song that will be in tonight's Grease episode, so if you live under a rock and haven't heard whose singing what then there is a tiny spoiler mentioning specific character singing a specific song. Don't even know if anyone would actually consider that a spoiler.**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

**A/N: Just a note, I live in a very small town in Texas and I've never been to New York, the closest I've ever even come to New York was North Carolina. So any and all places mentioned in this story come from half-assed searching through Google and Google Maps, such as the café. I apologize for any inaccuracies, and claim artistic license. **

**Also, I know absolutely nothing about interning, much less interning at a place like Voguedotcom, and I highly doubt a Vogue intern would work a 9 to 5 base, but hey, if Glee can be completely unrealistic and give Kurt an awesome job he has no qualifications for, then I figure I can give him whatever hours I want. So as of now in this story he works 9-5 depending on when Isabelle needs him to stay late or come in early for this or that, and is off on Sundays.**

**I think that's it for this one, Happy Glee Day!**

After the relative excitement of his morning Kurt had expected the rest of his day to crawl by at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Instead, it felt like each time he so much as blinked the hours simply vanished, leaving him with absolutely no time to finish the million and one tasks he had to get done for the day.

He'd had just enough time to get coffee for both himself and Isabelle before he made it to work with five minutes to spare. That was the last time he had any extra time all day, there was always a phone to answer, this or that to fetch for anyone who stopped him, messages to deliver and any other random and mundane task that could be thought up.

Such was the life of an intern he supposed.

Interspersed with his rushing around the offices of Voguedotcom like a mad man were texts from Rachel. All of which were not so subtle reasons why he shouldn't be going out with Sebastian.

_From: Rachel 9:25 AM_

_Are you sure about this? We ARE talking about a guy who tried to take your last BF away from you…_

_From: Rachel 11:31 AM_

_Slushie - P-( - Resulting in Pirate Blaine…_

He'd laughed hysterically at that one when he'd checked it during his 20 minute lunch break, garnering himself several odd looks from his co-workers. The best part was knowing that Rachel had probably meant it to be taken very seriously.

_From: Rachel 2:05 PM_

_He was just plain AWFUL to you Kurt! This can't be healthy!_

_From: Rachel 4:45 PM_

_He photo shopped Finn's thing BROWN!_

Rolling his eyes at that last text he snickered to himself, trying to stay quiet, not wanting to be thought insane by his co-workers twice in one day.

He had assumed he would spend the whole day a nervous wreck with thoughts of Sebastian and in anticipation for their meeting. But in reality the only time he had even had time to think of the other boy had been when he was getting one of Rachel's irritating text messages.

Besides his roommates messages there had also been a very simple good morning from Blaine, to which he had forced himself to send a somewhat stilted, yet hopefully friendly, reply. He'd had to remind himself that he _had_ agreed to be friends with his ex, and simple good morning texts _had _been something they'd started doing long before they started dating.

He did make the decision to politely ask Blaine to back off if he started to take it too far or if Kurt started to feel uncomfortable. He'd been unable to forget Blaine's determination to try and win him back, Kurt honestly didn't think it was possible at this point, but that didn't make him trying any less awkward.

"Kurt, there you are," Kurt turned to smile at Isabelle, ready to respond, but she kept going before he could. "I wanted to catch you before you started getting ready to leave. I know it's almost time for you to go, but there's a meeting I'd like you to sit in on, take notes, serve hot beverages, all that fun stuff. It shouldn't take more than 40 minutes."

He smiled brightly, "Of course! Umm, do you mind if I send a quick text? I was supposed to meet a friend for coffee at five; I want to let him know I'll be late."

"No problem, just meet me in my office in five minutes." She winked at him as she turned to walk away.

_To: Sexy Meerkat_

_Hey, so sorry! Last minute meeting. See you 5:45?_

There was an almost immediate response.

_From: Sexy Meerkat_

_No worries Princess. See you then, have fun in your meeting. Try to actually pay attention and not think about me too much ;)_

Kurt rolled his eyes but couldn't quite suppress a smile as he slipped his phone into his pocket and headed for Isabelle's office, hoping the next 40 minutes would fly by like the rest of the day had.

* * *

At 6:01 Kurt _finally_ walked into the café Sebastian had suggested. He had his phone out, prepared to text the other boy to let him know he'd arrived when he spotted him at a table in the back.

There was what looked like a text book open in front of him alongside a notebook, which he was jotting something down in. He looked ridiculously good, and he was just wearing a black band t-shirt (_and really Sebastian, really?_) and a maroon cardigan. He couldn't really see his lower half, but he seemed to be wearing well-fitting dark wash jeans. Kurt decided to let the fairly ratty looking t-shirt go because the cardigan not only fit very well, the color was absolutely perfect for the other boy.

Kurt sighed.

"Homework on a Friday evening, Mr. Smythe?" He asked as he finally approached the table.

Sebastian grinned openly at him. "Yeah well, I was waiting on this really hot guy but he was running late, so I figured it couldn't hurt to get a head start."

Kurt sighed, again. A blush bloomed across his cheeks, and he dipped his head to try to hide the fact as he removed his messenger bag to slide it under his chair as he sat.

"Sounds like a pretty rude guy," he said, his tone playful. "To make you wait like that."

Green eyes brightened and Sebastian leaned back in his seat, simultaneously crossing his arms over his chest and lifting his shoulders in a shrug. "I kind of think he might be worth putting up with it."

Kurt was beginning to curse his fair skin and wonder if he would ever stop blushing around the other boy.

"I am sorry though, the meeting ran late-"

"Kurt, it really is okay, I did get your text letting me know you'd be late, it's fine."

Sebastian had begun to close his books so they could be slipped back into his bag. "I'll get this stuff put away and then we can order. I don't know if you're hungry, but the sandwiches here really are pretty good."

"Sounds great, I unfortunately spent my lunch break responding to Rachel's insane texts instead of eating." Kurt rolled his eyes at the memory. "I'm pretty much running on adrenaline and coffee fumes right now."

Grinning at him, Sebastian pressed his hand to Kurt's back, guiding him through the moderately crowded café. "Guess we better get you fed, I can't have you passing out on me, Hummel."

_Oh… dear… God, _was about all his brain was capable of coming up with, the hand on his back being the only thing he could process. It wasn't until he noticed Sebastian giving him an odd look that he realized some form of response on his part might be expected.

He floundered momentarily, laughing nervously. "Don't worry, no matter how weak with hunger I become I absolutely refuse to faint. I shudder to think about the horribly offensive stereotyping that would result in."

Sebastian snorted. "Don't worry Princess, if I wasn't completely aware that you are, in fact, a man I would have absolutely no interest in you."

"I do so love it when you contradict yourself, Mr. Ed."

"Oh, good one!" Sebastian laughed. "A reference to my giant horse teeth!"

They paused their gentle ribbing long enough to order, Kurt simply taking Sebastian's suggestion as to what would be good.

"So, what was so important that you had to spend your lunch break texting Berry instead of actually eating?" Sebastian asked when they were once again seated.

Kurt blinked at him, considering how to answer the question, "You, actually." Honesty was supposed to be the best policy, right?

"Me?" He paused in reaching for his sandwich, "Not that I have any doubt that I'm an absolutely amazing topic for a conversation, but, why exactly?"

"Just Rachel being Rachel mostly," Kurt answered slowly and then took a bite of his own sandwich to delay any further explanation. As soon as he bit into his meal he actually found himself distracted, making pleased noises around his mouthful before swallowing. "Oh my God, that really is good! I had pretty much convinced myself I wasn't as hungry as I really am."

He looked up to find Sebastian staring at him a little wide eyed, "What?"

"Stop trying to distract me with your pornographic noises, I asked you a question." Sebastian's reply was a little huskier than normal.

"I was not!" Kurt hissed, his eyes widening and his face heating up.

Sebastian grinned at him, "Oh I beg to differ, I've seen plenty of porn in my day, and those noises? Pure porn."

Kurt groaned. "You are incorrigible!"

"Yes, I am. Now answer my question."

"Ugh, fine." Kurt eyed his sandwich, a little leery of actually taking another bite now; he decided he didn't care so much when he noticed Sebastian grinning at him knowingly. He nibbled at the sandwich, making sure to remain silent, before deigning to answer him. "I told her about meeting you yesterday after she woke me up by shoving her cell phone in my face and demanding to know why my relationship status on Facebook had changed."

That intense look was back in Sebastian's eyes, "You're relationship status changed?"

"Oh," Kurt breathed, "I, um, broke up with Blaine last night, thus the status change."

Sebastian's lips tilted up the tiniest bit, "Fascinating."

"Yes, well, like I told you yesterday, it was going to happen, I just decided there wasn't really any point in delaying the inevitable any further. I wasn't exactly doing either Blaine, or myself, any favors." He ignored Sebastian's growing self-satisfied smile, powering through to answer his original question. "Anyway, she barged into my room at five this morning, waving her cell phone in my face and demanding that I explain my relationship status to her."

Sebastian snorted, "How completely normal and not at all intrusive of her."

"This _is_ Rachel Berry we're talking about. After promising to attempt to respect my life choices and establishing that I am now single, she wanted to know how I'd come to the decision without consulting her first."

"How _did_ such a thing come to be, I wonder?" It wasn't the first time Kurt found himself wanting to wipe that infuriatingly smug look off the other boys face, though it was slightly disconcerting to realize that his preferable method of doing so had changed, drastically.

He shifted awkwardly, "So I told her that I met someone we both knew from Ohio, she nearly lost her mind trying to figure out who I was talking about. She ended up coming very close to accusing me of meeting up with one of her dads, Sandy Ryerson, and Chandler. Chandler was actually just an afterthought, but he was definitely the least horrifying person she managed to come up with. Oh, well, she did start off her accusations with David Karofsky, they probably tie for least horrifying."

Sebastian gaped at him, "Her _dads_? David? Who the hell is Sandy Ryerson?"

Kurt laughed at the look on his face, "You seriously don't want to know. I promise."

"I'm going to take your word on that," Sebastian eyed him cautiously.

"Well, after the near wild accusations of shady dealings with her _fathers _she calmed down enough for me to tell her about our meeting yesterday. She actually accepted everything surprisingly well, until of course I told her that it was you. Then the not so metaphorical crazy hit the metaphorical fan."

Instead of looking even remotely offended, Sebastian seemed quite proud of himself.

Rolling his eyes, Kurt continued, "Anyway, after that she spent the rest of the day being as subtle as a brick to the head. Some of her texts were quite amusing at least; there was an emoticon Pirate Blaine involved."

"Seriously?"

Kurt laughed and pulled his phone out to show him the text in question. "The best part is that I'm pretty sure she meant for me to take it seriously."

Sebastian glanced at the text, laughing, he flicked through the other texts from Rachel, "I did apologize for the photo shopping thing, and they never even made it online. She should really let that go."

"Please, since when has Rachel Barbra Berry _ever_ let anything go?" Kurt snorted. "If you plan on sticking around you might as well get used to it."

A very pleased smile was his response. "Do you _want_ me to stick around?"

Before Kurt could answer him, his phone chimed from its place in Sebastian's hand, who automatically glanced at it before handing it over.

"You have a new text," His smile slipping almost unnoticeably. "From Blaine."

Kurt blinked down at his phone, amazed by Blaine's ridiculously bad timing. He quickly swiped a finger across the screen to open the text.

_From: Blaine_

_Glee club is doing Grease, I don't know if you're coming back for the holidays, but I hope you'll get to see it. I haven't been able to get Hopelessly Devoted To You out of my head._

Kurt grimaced and immediately shoved his phone into his bag with an irritated sigh.

"He's not taking the break up well I assume?" Sebastian was watching him carefully, eyes guarded and Kurt had to fight off the desire to get up and hug the other boy, all the while assuring him that there was absolutely nothing going on with his ex.

"We agreed to be friends." _Well, he kind of begged me to be friends,_ Kurt thought to himself, wincing when Sebastian's surprise was more than obvious.

"Really?" There was a great deal of skepticism in that one word.

"We _were_ friends before we started dating," Kurt began, choosing his words carefully. "And he was there for me at a time when I didn't really have anyone else to go to, at least not anyone who would have understood. He asked if we could still be friends, and I just couldn't say no."

Sebastian tore off a piece of his sandwich, popping it in his mouth and chewing slowly, eyes practically boring through Kurt. "You didn't look too happy, considering that was just a simple text from a friend."

Kurt sighed, "He did tell me that he wasn't planning on giving up on me last night, so I told him I met someone. The text was to tell me that New Directions is doing Grease for the school musical this year, he then added that he couldn't get the song Hopelessly Devoted To You out of his head."

"You actually told him you met someone?" Sebastian looked genuinely surprised.

"Yes," Kurt said, still cautious. "I didn't want to give him any false hope, but he obviously didn't take me very seriously. Or as is more likely, it's just Blaine being his completely oblivious self and ignoring the parts of a conversation that don't suit his agenda."

He squirmed a little in his seat, "I didn't tell him _who_ I met, just that I met someone. I couldn't quite bring myself to open that can of worms."

Sebastian smirked, "Yeah, I can imagine how that might have gone."

"Um, actually, now that we're talking about things that I really don't want to talk about and make me somewhat uncomfortable. I have something I wanted to ask you, or tell you I guess." Kurt had taken to twisting a napkin between his fingers, glancing up at Sebastian occasionally, trying to figure out if the other boy would even think just being friends with him would be worth it. Maybe Sebastian would deem him too much effort and just bail, Kurt was fairly sure he could handle it. It would be a blow to his self-esteem sure, but it wouldn't be the first, and probably not the last.

The boy in question was just gazing at him quite calmly now, obviously waiting for Kurt to ask his question with a surprising amount of patience.

"I know you said you wanted me to ask me out but," when that guarded look began to creep back into Sebastian's eyes Kurt rushed forward, speaking as quickly as he could while remaining coherent.

"No, wait, it's not a bad but, at least I don't think it is." He took a deep breath, and averted his eyes, "I just don't want you to be some, rebound thing, Sebastian. I really do want to go out with you, eventually, sooner rather than later actually. Just not immediately, I want us to try to be friends first."

To his surprise when he finally met Sebastian's eyes again, the other boy was smiling. "Friends, huh?"

Kurt smiled, still a little unsure. "Yes, like I said, not for forever, but I did _just_ break up with Blaine _last night_ and I think it would be good for both of us to get to know each other a little better before we try becoming anything, more."

There was a mischievous glint in Sebastian's eyes that was starting to make Kurt nervous.

"You said yesterday that you've never been chased?"

"Um, yes." Blue gray eyes blinked and confusion seeped into his tone. "I mean, no, no I haven't."

Sebastian grinned at him, "Okay, we can be friends. But I think it's about time you've been wooed."

"You're going to _woo_ me?" Kurt asked, equal parts amused, bewildered and intrigued by the idea.

"It's the perfect plan," Sebastian looked amused now. "You've never been wooed, and it should cover up any inappropriateness that I accidentally manage stumble into because I've never done this whole 'friends first' thing."

Kurt couldn't help but laugh, "Inappropriateness? Really, Sebastian?"

"What? I can already tell you right now I'll slip up, at least once, but more than likely multiple times." That cocky grin was back. "It's going to be ridiculously hard to keep my hands to myself around you for one. And two, I've already kissed you once, and I've been driving myself crazy thinking about how much I want to do it again."

Kurt covered his burning face with his hands, Sebastian's eyes softened and his expression became more serious. "But Kurt, if you want to be friends first, that's fine with me, we'll be friends. Honestly, you're the only person whose ever cared enough to think of me like that, guys I've been involved with before wouldn't have been concerned about whether they were using me as a rebound or not."

"Then they obviously didn't deserve you," Kurt said, surprising himself with the forcefulness in his own tone. He deliberated for about 30 seconds before reaching out and covering Sebastian's hand with his own, relieved when he got a genuine smile in return.

"To be fair, I _was_ a complete dick at the time," Sebastian squeezed his hand. "_I_ wasn't too concerned about whether they were making me a rebound or not. I was using them as much as they were using me; I just want you to understand that I don't want things to be like that between us, friends or not. You remember how I told you yesterday that I would have gone after you if I'd thought you would've gone for it?"

Kurt nodded, completely surprised by the serious turn in the conversation.

"Well, I'm really glad I didn't, I wouldn't have known what the hell to do with you if I'd gotten you. It would have turned into a one night stand, even if I'd gone into it wanting more, because I had _no_ idea what I was doing. But I like to think I've gone through a lot of growing up, a lot of things have happened since then. I've spent a lot of my life thinking that I should be able to have whatever I want _just_ because I want it. I'm perfectly willing to admit that my parents spoiled the hell out of me, and they weren't exactly doing me any favors when they did it."

He took a deep breath and Kurt shivered when Sebastian's fingers began to gently trace the veins on his wrist.

"It started with the stuff that happened with David, but that was just the beginning, I went through… a _lot_ of crap after that, none of which I'm proud of. I'm not really ready to tell you about it yet, but I had a wakeup call that snapped me out of it," his smile was self-deprecating. "Made me realize just how unbelievably stupid I was being."

"You don't have to tell me _anything_ you don't want to, Sebastian, and I promise not to pry, not until you're ready to tell me." Kurt breathed out, squeezing the other boy's hand again.

"Thank you and I _will_ tell you eventually, just not right now, I just wanted to let you know that I'm serious about this. I may have no idea what I'm doing, but we'll take things at your pace, do the whole friends thing. But you should be aware that I will also be doing my best to pursue you the way you deserve. I can be very charming when I want to be."

When Kurt laughed there was a touch of amused nervousness in to it, "Consider me aware then."

The conversation was considerably less heavy after that, the discussion turning to school and work, and the things the two of them had been up to since coming to New York. Kurt found himself both amused and surprised to find that Sebastian was planning to be a lawyer and Sebastian himself had been outraged on his behalf at finding out that Kurt's perfect audition hadn't gotten him into NYADA, but Rachel had choked and ended up getting a spot.

"It really doesn't bother me very much anymore." Kurt told him. "I mean, it's more than a little insulting. But I'm glad things worked out this way, I told Rachel that I was planning on re-applying to NYADA, but I honestly don't know if I will. I'm enjoying working at Vogue with Isabelle, and I really do love working in fashion. I've been thinking about applying to Parsons, FIT and a few other schools in the fall. I used to think the only thing that could make me happy was being on a Broadway stage, but now I can picture myself with my own line, spreads in Vogue, and masses of people overpaying for clothes with my name branded on them, and it's just as thrilling."

"That's good, I can see you doing that, actually I just see you being too stubborn to _not_ be successful. I was more than a little surprised when you said you weren't in school." Sebastian told him honestly.

Kurt laughed. "That was my own willfulness working against me, I had decided I was going to New York and I was getting into NYADA and nothing short of that would be acceptable. Though, for once in my life a fairly undesirable situation seems to be turning out in my favor."

He smiled shyly at Sebastian, hoping that he understood that Kurt considered him a good thing. The answering smile led him to believe he'd gotten his point across.

Unfortunately, even though it was the one time Kurt had hoped time might slow down that day, it still went by far too quickly. Sebastian had a study group early in the morning and Kurt himself had work. So by 7:30 they were getting ready to go their separate ways.

"Can I hug you?"

Kurt stared at Sebastian, completely caught off guard by the seemingly random and definitely odd question. "Umm?"

Sebastian smirked at him, "Well, you want to be friends. So, another kiss is probably out of the question, but hugs are a socially acceptable way to bid a friend farewell aren't they?"

"Oh," Kurt exhaled, "Sure, friends hug friends, that's… perfectly acceptable."

The next thing he knew Sebastian's arms were wrapped around him and he was breathing in the taller boy's expensive cologne. Kurt brought his own arms up to return the hug, taking in the scent that was part cologne he couldn't name and part _Sebastian, _he shivered, though he was the complete opposite of cold. One of Sebastian's hands had fitted into the small of his back, and okay that was seriously becoming one of Kurt's _things_ very quickly.

"I'll text you later," Sebastian's warm breath hit his ear as he spoke, making him shiver again. "We'll have to get together again as soon as we both have the time."

He nodded, feeling a little dazed, _Calm down already, it was just a hug!_ "Yeah, that sounds good, um, really good. We can compare schedules later."

Sebastian grinned at him once more before turning to walk away with a wave.

Kurt sighed; yet again standing in the middle of a crowded sidewalk and watching Sebastian Smythe walk away. After a hug that had felt more intimate than he had ever thought a _hug_ could feel. When he finally turned away to find his own way home it was with his lips turned up into a smile that he was only halfway aware of.

* * *

The next day at work was just as busy as the day before, and he didn't even have a coffee date (a _friendly _coffee date) with Sebastian to look forward to today. There had however been a large amount of texts from the other boy, all ranging from adorably flirty, to damn near crude. He supposed he shouldn't have expected anything less from Sebastian Smythe.

At the moment he was rushing towards his desk, having just gotten back from running an errand involving a ridiculous amount of scarves that had gone missing.

As soon as he was in sight of his desk he froze, there was a large vase on his desk filled with a stunningly beautiful bouquet with a mixture of blues flowers varying from teal to soft blue grays as well as a few white blossoms, most of which he didn't know the name of.

"Hey Kurt, I thought the ex had given up?" Chase asked, approaching him with a smile and gesturing to the bouquet.

Kurt frowned, "So did I." But then, all three times Blaine had sent flowers, while Kurt was still refusing to speak to him, they had been red and yellow roses.

With this in mind he quickly closed the space between him and the flowers and plucked the card from the bouquet.

_I told you I would woo you, the colors made me think of the way your eyes seem to change colors. The flowers don't quite compare, but it's the best I could do._

_Sebastian Smythe_

Taking in the faint blush rising on Kurt's cheeks and the pleased smile, Chase grinned, "Not the ex I take it? Secret admirer?"

Kurt shook himself out of his stupor, "Umm, no, not the ex, not a secret admirer either."

Chase seemed to realize he wasn't going to get anything else out of him, so he just clapped Kurt on the shoulder with a laugh before turning to walk away.

A quick glance at his watch showed that it was time for him to get ready to leave anyway, so he pulled out his phone.

_To: Sebastian_

_The flowers are beautiful, thank you. :D_

He had changed Sebastian's name in his contacts, yet again, the day before, after he'd left the café. The main reason being that he'd needed a reminder to _himself_ that he wanted to be friends with Sebastian first and flirty names in his phone were certainly not helpful in keeping that mindset.

He didn't get a reply until he was on walking down his own street, having had a ton of fun navigating the New York subway system with vase full of flowers in hand.

_From: Sebastian_

_You're welcome, Beautiful. Have you been home yet?_

Kurt frowned, shifting his armful so that he could text back more comfortably.

_To: Sebastian_

_Not yet, on my block a few doors down. Why?_

He had fitted his key to the lock on the door to his building when he got a response. Sighing, he once again shifted everything around a bit so he could kick the door closed behind him, starting down the hall towards the loft and checking the message simultaneously.

_From: Sebastian_

_You'll see… ;)_

Kurt stopped in the middle of the hallway, eyebrow lifted in curiosity, even though Sebastian obviously couldn't see him.

With equal parts anticipation and worry he quickly made it the rest of the way down the hall working to get his door open impatiently when the thing slid open, seemingly by itself. He jumped back with an undignified squeak as Rachel's grinning face appeared less than a foot away from his own.

"Oh my God! Rachel, you scared me half to death!"

Rachel ignored him completely and grabbed his arm, nearly wrenching it out of the socket as she jerked him forward into the apartment. "You got a delivery earlier."

"I realize that, Rachel," he rolled his eyes. "I'm holding it, and my arms are tired, I'd like to put it down actually."

She just giggled at him, "You can put it with the others then."

"What?"

Instead of answering him, she simply turned him to face the kitchen, his mouth immediately fell open. Place in a row on the kitchen table were three more bouquets, all just as beautiful as the last, not quite identical, but in the same varying shades of blue and white.

He made his way towards the table slowly, halfway convinced that if he moved too quickly the flowers would vanish and the whole thing would have been some kind of hallucination.

"There's a note on the one in the middle," Rachel informed him. "I wanted to read it so badly it almost killed me, but then I realized that you probably really _would_ kill me if I did."

Kurt gave her a look that he hoped showed her how very true that was. He carefully placed the bouquet in his arms down next to the others and reached out to take the note from the one indicated by Rachel.

_I also told you I could be charming. Are you free for coffee tomorrow?_

_Sebastian_

Rachel was practically twitching with curiosity next to him, so he handed her not only the second note, but the first one as well.

Once she read them she looked over to find him smelling on of the flowers. Her lips twitched, "I must admit that I am quite pleasantly surprised by his romantic ability."

Kurt laughed, "So am I actually." He pulled his phone back out of his pocket and waved it at her. "I'm going to…"

He drifted off, but by some form of magic or just Rachel being in a very giving mood, she nodded. "_Right_, you call him and I'll be in my room, not listening in on your conversation!"

He rolled his eyes, and waved her off, moving to make himself comfortable on the couch before pressing the call button on his phone.

Sebastian answered on the second ring.

"_Why hello there Beautiful, what a surprise this is!"_

Kurt snorted. "You're absolutely _ridiculous_ Sebastian, the flowers are beautiful, but they must have cost you a fortune!"

"_It was nothing, and I've already told you, I think you're worth it." _It was completely unfair that Sebastian could just say things like that with his stupid voice and just _do _things to Kurt, without even trying.

"Well," Kurt started, voice higher pitched than he'd intended. "Worth it or not, that was still way too much money Sebastian."

"_It really wasn't, I have more than enough money, and I can't think of anything better to spend it on than you."_

Kurt groaned and threw himself down on the couch, burying his face in a cushion to muffle his frustrated laughter. "Fine, you can spend your money on whatever you want, even overpriced bouquets of, admittedly beautiful, flowers in your quest to _woo_ me. Though really, this whole winning me over thing is kind of redundant, as I'm already quite inexplicably fond of you."

Sebastian's voice came across the line mockingly outraged. _"Inexplicably!? I'll have you know that I am a _very_ likeable person, Kurt. Just because it took you so long to realize it, doesn't make it any less true."_

Kurt laughed softly, "Of course, I'll have to apologize to your throngs of adoring fans for besmirching your honor. I shudder to think of what they might all do to me if they find out the terrible things I've said about your likability."

Sebastian laughed.

"Your laugh is kind of adorable you know." Kurt closed his eyes, mentally kicked himself and wondered if there would ever come a time when he could stop himself from saying such ridiculously stupid things to the other boy without thinking them through first.

But instead of mocking him or making him miserable for it, Sebastian's response was very simple. _"Yeah? I've always thought it was kind of dorky, I usually don't really laugh very often, but you kind of bring it out in me."_

Kurt smiled against the cushion and repositioned his phone against his ear. "It is dorky, but in a completely adorable way. I think it's cute."

"_Have coffee with me tomorrow?" _Sebastian asked abruptly. _"You're off tomorrow, right? We can make a day of it."_

"I am off; can I make a request though?"

"_Of course."_

Kurt laughed, "Can we please do anything but go out for coffee? I mean, it's fine if we get coffee at some point during the day, but no coffee dates."

Sebastian joined him in his laughter. _"Sure thing, Princess. In fact, how about I pick you up, coffee in tow, about noon? You won't have to step foot in a café at all."_

Kurt sighed, a grin overtaking his features. "Sounds perfect."

Later, even Rachel screeching in his ear, begging for details as he tried to complete his night time moisturizing routine, couldn't wipe the smile off of his face.

**A/N 2: And another chapter down I hope everyone enjoys! Once again thanks so much for the reviews and favorites, you make me ridiculously happy. **

**Also, I know I said Kurt wanted to be friends first, but I never said Seb would agree, much less make it easy on him, lol. =P**

**I would like to say I'll be updating at least once between now and Thursday, but I'm taking some extra hours for a co-worker for the next two weeks so I don't have as much time as usual. BUT there will be an update on Thursday regardless!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Warnings: I wouldn't call it bashing, but canon events are used, casting Blaine in an unfavorable light. Also, this chapter is completely tame, but there are plans for future smut.**

**Spoilers: Up to The Break Up**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

**A/N: Okay, so this one is much shorter than the others, and there is a time skip, but I kept wanting to speed things up and this chapter just did not want to be written and this is what eventually came out. I kind of screwed with the time line a little, also, as of tonight's episode this fic is officially AU.**

If anyone had asked him a month ago if he could be happy after having broken up with Blaine, Kurt would have given them his patent "bitch please" face, thrown an epic diva fit and stormed away.

But, he was.

The past three weeks had been, amazing. Most of his spare time had been spent with Sebastian, or talking to Sebastian, or texting Sebastian.

It was almost ridiculous at this point, and Kurt was more than a little surprised that the other boy hadn't lost his patience by now. Despite the absurd amount of time they had been spending together, Kurt was still insisting they remain friends, Sebastian hadn't said a word. He simply continued to woo Kurt, and really, the idea of Sebastian Smythe wooing anyone (especially Kurt) still kind of made him want to giggle like a little girl.

He got sweet texts at the beginning of every day, wishing him a good morning and hope that his day would go well. Admittedly after the first text of the day the messages were known to grow considerably flirty and borderline raunchy. At which point a furiously blushing Kurt would send an, at this point, almost customary cease and desist message.

It had all pretty much started with that second day they had met up, on purpose at least. After Kurt had confessed that besides his and Rachel's visit to the Gershwin Theatre last year he hadn't really done anything touristy since he'd been in New York, Sebastian dedicated the day to taking Kurt to every ridiculous tourist location he could think of.

It had been incredibly exhausting, but equally amazing. They had been to the Empire State building, the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center Memorial, all with promises to return to each individual place again to explore more in depth. There had also been a visit to Central Park, which Kurt actually _had _been to, but this time it was so Sebastian could show him his favorite places.

They had re-visited various places over the past three weeks, as well as visited any other new location that popped into their heads. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Modern Art, Kurt had gotten more culture since he'd started hanging with Sebastian than he'd had in his entire life, not for his lack of trying of course. They were all things he and Blaine had been planning to do on his ex's visits.

At the moment he was sitting across from Rachel on his lunch break.

Rachel had been continually waffling on her opinion of Sebastian; in general she still seemed to be quite content to verbally eviscerate the other boy at any chance she got. She was constantly reminding Kurt of Sebastian's past wrongdoings and mishaps. Then he would do something romantic, like send him an unbelievable amount of flowers, or a sweet text, or one of the best things yet, take him to see Wicked, (Rachel hadn't spoken to him for two days after that) and once she got over her jealousy she would immediately begin singing his praise.

"You know," Rachel started suddenly, drawing him out of his thoughts. "I was really worried after everything that happened with Bl— well, you know who. And then I was even more worried when all of this stuff started up with Sebastian, but I'm really glad you've gotten over Blaine so quickly. You seem so happy."

Kurt blinked at her. "What?"

She smiled at him, "Well, honestly I was kind of expecting a Kurt Armageddon when I found out that Blaine had cheated, and you were obviously, and understandably, upset for those two weeks after. But then you met Sebastian again and you've just been so happy. I mean—you are over Blaine aren't you?"

"I," Kurt stared down at his coffee, "No. I mean, I guess I'm doing a lot better than I ever would have expected that I could be after being cheated on by the person I planned on spending the rest of my life with."

Rachel winced, beginning to look like she regretted starting this particular conversation.

"Last week I went through my I-pod and deleted every single thing by Pink or Katy Perry, not to mention anything he ever sang in Glee, or _we _sang in Glee, because I put the thing on shuffle and Teenage Dream played while I was taking a walk. I nearly had a mini-break down in the middle of Central Park."

He didn't mention that the only reason he _hadn't_ broken down was that he'd called Sebastian who had talked him through it and then agreed to meet for a late lunch.

"Oh, Kurt, I had no idea," Rachel reached over to place a hand on his.

Kurt shook his head, "It's really not that bad most of the time, but I wouldn't say that I'm _over_ him. He was my first love."

Rachel gave him a sad smile. "Is that why you haven't agreed to go out with Sebastian yet? Even after all of the surprisingly romantic gestures and the insane amount of time you spend together."

Kurt rolled his eyes, not only was Rachel considerably jealous, but Kurt had also been very careful to keep the two of them apart, having decided that neither of them were quite ready for each other.

"Yes, I mean, there is no doubt that I _do_ want to go out with him, he's kind of wonderful." He smiled. "And I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it feels to just be—wanted. I think that helps actually, in a weird way, knowing that someone _does_ want me, and they care enough to spend so much time making me happy. In some ways it's made me realize just how— dysfunctional is such a strong word, but my relationship with Blaine was never really the most _functional _in some ways."

She looked confused and Kurt sighed, "I know it never seemed that way, I know everyone thought we were some perfect couple that never had any problems up until Blaine was accusing me of cheating in front of the entire Glee club. But it's true; I spent so much time idolizing him before we got together, and then even though I'd kind of removed the rose colored glasses by the time he kissed me over a dead bird, we still weren't exactly even in the way we looked at each other."

"I looked up to him and he still acted like my gay life mentor half the time, and despite that, I still fell head over heels for him. We spent the first eight months of our relationship never doing anything more than some light making out. I never really complained at the time, and I _never_ would have said anything, but I never once really felt like Blaine _wanted_ me. Not sexually anyway, I told him once that I thought the sexiest thing was the brush of fingertips, but I can admit that my opinion changed pretty drastically once I had a hot boyfriend."

Rachel looked surprised to hear that. "I knew that you two hadn't had sex by West Side Story, but I guess I always just assumed it was because of, you know—"

Kurt laughed, "Me?"

"Well," she looked bemused, "Yes actually."

"It was, at first, but even after I had changed my mind I never wanted to make a first move, so I just kept waiting for Blaine to do it. I know I always had this image of him as a perfect gentleman, but he was still a teenage boy and, I mean, eight months? It's not like I wasn't sending signals or at least what a virgin whose sex education came from pamphlets would think were signals."

Rachel snorted.

"Ughh, I guess my point is that half the time I don't know what I feel. Blaine still texts me fairly often, and there's the constant allusion to him wanting to try again once he lives here, even though I've told him a million times that I'm kind of seeing someone. Which is an exaggeration, but it's not like _he_ knows that."

Kurt rolled his eyes and the next part came out more than a little bitter. "It's just so infuriating that he chooses _now_ to decide he's going to chase me and work on our damn relationship. Why not before he cheated on me? When we actually _had_ a relationship! Or before I didn't get into NYADA and he decided to ignore me instead of make the most of the time we had?"

Rachel gave him a sympathetic look, and he continued his rant.

"And I don't want to lead Sebastian on, and I feel bad throwing all this crap on him all the time, even though he seems okay with everything. But then, if I _do_ have every intention of going out with him _eventually_ then I'm not really leading him on, right?"

Rachel opened her mouth to answer, but Kurt just kept going. "And if I call him to vent about Blaine and he just listens and acts all sweet and everything then that's not really throwing anything on him, right? Because this _is_ Sebastian we're talking about, changed or not, if I was irritating him he would tell me, right?"

She just sat and stared at him for a moment after he stopped talking waiting to see if he would keep going. Kurt lifted a brow in question.

"Sorry, I was just waiting to see if you had anything to add."

Kurt rolled his eyes at her and she laughed before continuing. "I don't have any definite answers for you, Kurt. I have plenty of my own relationship issues, there's Finn and then Brody and I are together but not _officially _together, I guess we're more together than you and Sebastian. But, my point is, I'm not exactly the most qualified person to ask."

He sighed and stared mournfully into his coffee.

"I _can_ tell you," she continued, squeezing his hand, "That I think you're right about Sebastian, I think if you were annoying him or he was feeling led on he'd let you know, immediately. Of course, I would know better how to advise you in this situation if you ever actually let me in the same room with the man."

He eyed her cautiously, "I just can't decide if you're less ready for him or he's less ready for you."

She huffed, "Fine, but if you're so sure you're going to date the guy eventually, I am your roommate _and_ your best friend, you'll have to have us meet sooner or later."

"I am well aware of that Rachel; I am simply prolonging the inevitable as long as I possibly can."

"Fine, but this isn't going to stop me from making sure he's good enough for you," She informed him, unfortunately sounding very serious.

Kurt snickered, "Yeah sweetie, that would be one of the very good reasons I've been keeping the two of you apart. My master plan is to get him as attached to me as possible before I set the wolves, that would be you, on him."

"Fine, be that way then." She pouted at him.

"Don't worry, I will."

She sighed, beginning to look a little tentative, which immediately set Kurt on edge, "So, I know we talked about it before, but you never gave me a straight answer. Are you planning on going back to Lima for Thanksgiving?"

He groaned, "I don't know, Rachel."

"Come _on_! I know your dad has left you a dozen messages, and that's just on the landline. Don't make me go back alone, please?"

He sighed, she just _had_ to pull the dad card, his dad _had_ been calling non-stop, nearly begging him to come home for the holiday, even offering to pay for his plane ticket. He bit his lip, toying with the coffee sleeve on his cup. He wanted to see his family, and he'd felt terrible for missing Grease even though he knew how much it meant to Finn. It would just be another disappointment for him to blow off Thanksgiving. Not to mention it was a holiday, school wouldn't even be in session, and everyone would be with their _own _families, meaning it was very unlikely that he would be cajoled into attending some glee function. He didn't have to see Blaine if he didn't want to.

"Alright, fine, I'll go." He winced when Rachel let out an almost inhuman screech of apparent joy.

"No, really Kurt, this is wonderful! I've been waiting to book my flight because I was hoping you would change your mind!"

He just rolled his eyes, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket when it chimed to announce a text. "Alright, alright! Rachel, calm down, I can't tell but I think you're making noises only dogs can hear."

She huffed at him, again and stopped squealing, but was apparently unable to contain her excitement completely because she immediately started bouncing in her seat. "Whatever, I'm just happy I don't have to travel by myself now! We can look up flight info in the morning, because as I'm sure you remember, Brody will be over this evening."

Kurt wrinkled his nose, but smiled down at his phone.

"Soo," Rachel sounded much too amused, "What'd lover boy have to say?"

He frowned at her, "How on earth do you know who is texting me?"

"Please, whenever you get a text from Sebastian you get that goofy little smile on your face, it's kind of adorable."

Kurt rolled his eyes but did slid the phone across the table to let her read the message.

_From: Sebastian_

_So, it's been a full 26 hours since I saw you last. I think I'm going through withdrawal, what are you doing tonight?_

Rachel giggled and returned the phone, "Why aren't you dating him again?"

"Sometimes, I honestly forget," he sighed, "But mostly because I feel like I should be able to even _think_ about being in the same room with Blaine without freaking out before I start seeing someone else."

Rachel was uncharacteristically quiet after that, they had made something of a pact to agree to disagree when it came to the way they dealt with their break ups. She hadn't waited very long at all to start seeing Brody, even if they weren't official yet, but Kurt didn't judge her for it. He knew how tempting it was to want to jump into something; he was just too stubborn to give in.

_Maybe I'm just a little bit of a masochist, _he sighed down at his phone before typing up his response.

_To: Sebastian_

_Absolutely nothing actually, Rachel is having Brody over so I imagine I'll spend my night holed up in my room with my headphones turned all the way up pretending I have walls and I'm alone in the apartment._

The reply was immediate, and he couldn't help but feel a little warm and fuzzy when he thought about Sebastian just waiting for him to respond.

_From: Sebastian_

_You're in luck, you have plans now that don't involve the Jewish Chihuahua and her sex God making love not war. I have class till 5 today, and I actually don't particularly feel like going out, but I was thinking we could get some take out and watch a movie or something? You still haven't seen my place yet._

_To: Sebastian_

_Sounds perfect! Actually, I keep offering to cook for you so you can have something almost healthy for once, I can do that tonight if you want?_

Rachel kept giving him inquiring glances that he could practically _hear_; he rolled his eyes and answered the unasked question between texts. "He asked me over to watch a movie tonight, and I offered to cook for him."

_From: Sebastian_

_Please, like I'm going to turn down an opportunity to find out if your cooking is actually as amazing as you make it out to be. I haven't been to the store in I don't even know how long, so we'll have to go shopping first._

_To: Sebastian_

_That's fine, as far as I know I'll be getting off on time today, by the time you get over here I'll be off. Meet me at Starbucks?_

_From: Sebastian_

_See you then. :D_

"So," Rachel started, with a secretive smile, "You're cooking him dinner?"

"Yes."

"And then cozying up for a movie?"

He sighed. "Yes, Rachel."

"Sounds like a date." She sing-songed.

"Ughh, it's _not_."

"I believe you," her smile was becoming insufferable as she took out a few bills to throw down with their bill.

Kurt sighed, though inwardly he was completely delighted by the idea of cooking for Sebastian. "I hate you."

"No you don't, you love me and you have no idea what you would do without me."

He rolled his eyes at her, but still wrapped an arm around her waist once they had both stood to leave the restaurant, "That's a little bit true, I guess."

**A/N 2: So, as I said, this is officially an AU, as obviously Rachel and Kurt didn't go to see Grease, but will be going back for Thanksgiving.**

**To anyone put out by the missing Kurt/Sebastian hanging out for the first time thing, I may or may not write a little side shot type thing encompassing that day. Haven't decided yet, it would have been this chapter, but this week has sucked for me and it just did not want to be written. So annoying. **

**BUT! Because of how short this chapter is and how uncooperative my muse was this last week and seeing as it SEEMS to be back on track as I already have the next chapter started, you can expect it soon, hopefully tomorrow. As well as the regularly scheduled update on Thursday, so long as work and my family visiting for Thanksgiving don't freaking kill me between then and now.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Warnings: Very time, with some light making out.**

**Spoilers: Up to The Break Up**

**Disclaimer: Nooooottttt miiiiinnnneeeee…**

**A/N: Alrighty then, so I wanted this up yesterday, but I wasn't quite finished, and it actually wouldn't be going up now, but I woke up sick this morning and ended up calling off work. Luckily I was able to sleep it off after about four hours and spent the rest of my evening writing. Sooo, yay! **

Kurt spent the rest of the day hoping that Isabelle wouldn't have anything for him to do that would keep him after 5:30. As luck would have it, she didn't.

Which was why he was practically flying out the door, hoping to escape before he could be sent to yet another meeting, on some insane errand, or yet another coffee run. In the end if felt like nothing short of an absolute miracle to be walking into Starbucks at exactly 5:45.

He spotted Sebastian standing at the head of the line, having just reached the counter. Kurt braved the three people behind his friend, ignoring the dirty looks shot his way, in order to move up next the other boy in time to hear him order Kurt's usual mocha as well as a venti caramel macchiato with an extra shot of espresso.

He was more than a little amused when Sebastian jumped just the tiniest bit when Kurt moved to lean against him.

Kurt snickered quietly at the affronted look he got in return, "Hey."

Sebastian mock glared at him and pulled his wallet out to pay for their coffee, Kurt having gotten over his half-hearted attempts to pay for _anything_ when he was with the other boy at least a week and a half ago. "Hey, Sweetheart."

"Long day?" Kurt asked, rolling his eyes at the nickname and allowing Sebastian to place a hand on his back to lead him over to the other end of the counter to wait for their drinks.

"You could definitely say that." Sebastian gave him a somewhat tired looking smile, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you _look_ tired for one," Kurt adjusted the strap on his messenger bag, still completely amused by this rather lethargic Sebastian. "And then you ordered an extra shot of espresso in your oversized coffee and instead of harassing me into going out to some amazing new place you just _have _to show me tonight, you want me to cook you dinner and sit on your couch and watch a movie. In your apartment, which for the past three weeks you have refused to let me see."

Sebastian snorted, "I am tired, I didn't sleep well last night and then classes were kind of terrible today, I think it must be a universal thing that most teachers get really bitchy around the holidays."

"Must have something to do with seeing such eager, excited faces, such as yours, staring at them in lecture halls all day." Kurt laughed.

The green eyed man sneered, but still reached over to hand Kurt his coffee when it was placed in front of them. "It's not _my_ fault they had no further aspirations in life beyond teaching a pack of brainless lumps Metaphysics."

Kurt, who still didn't understand the whole majoring in Philosophy leading to Law school, or Pre-law school, or, whatever, just side-eyed Sebastian.

"Don't worry, Princess." Sebastian was the one looking amused now, "I won't bore you with the details."

"Okay, it is _not_ my fault that I absolutely do _not _care about that 'If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?' stuff that you seem to find so riveting."

They made their way to the exit, not in any particular hurry. "You're lucky you're so pretty."

"Haha, you are absolutely hilarious."

Sebastian grinned at him, lifting an arm to hail a cab once they were on the sidewalk, "I really am, I just don't think you fully appreciate my humor. So, what are you cooking for me tonight? Whatever it is we'll have to stop for groceries."

"Assuming I'll be able to find all of the ingredients, I found a recipe that I've wanted to try; it's an herb and mustard sirloin with baked potatoes. It's pretty pointless to make it at home, what with my crazy roommate being a vegan, and I would definitely never eat all of it." Kurt laughed. "So be prepared to be used as my guinea pig."

"You know, as long as you're feeding me steak I think I can handle it."

Buying groceries with Sebastian turned into something of an adventure. They had stopped at a place that Sebastian told him was about two blocks away from his apartment. There weren't really that many ingredients involved in what Kurt planned to make, so he'd just grabbed a basket, which had led to playing keep away with Sebastian, who kept trying to throw various junk foods in amongst the things Kurt was picking out for their meal.

Sebastian frowned at him when he took a package of Oreos back out of the basket on his arm and placed them back on the shelf. "Kurt, Sweetheart, Oreos are a very important part of my diet, I need them."

Kurt shot him a mildly disgusted look. "How on _Earth_ do you look the way you look when you eat the way you eat?"

"Magic," Sebastian grinned at him, laughing when Kurt just scowled. "The gym, Princess, I go to the gym, well, that and I really do have a pretty magical metabolism."

"Whatever, no Oreos, you can buy them when I'm not around to look at them, I have a recipe for brownies that isn't exactly _healthy, _but at least they're healthier."

Sebastian looked more than a little suspicious at the idea of healthy brownies, but said nothing, though he didn't stop trying to slip things into the basket whenever Kurt wasn't looking. He probably would have been more successful if the other boy wasn't holding the damn thing.

By the time they made it to the checkout Kurt had won the battle of the junk food, leaving nothing but the ingredients he needed to cook with in the basket, and a very definitely pouting Sebastian.

Kurt was trying not to break into somewhat hysterical laughter at the look on Sebastian's face, he wasn't doing very well. "Oh come on, you'll survive, I promise there will be leftovers, you aren't going to starve without your god awful junk food."

The pout didn't go anywhere and Kurt couldn't resist giggling a little, "Why haven't you been to the store lately anyway?"

"Uh," Sebastian started, pout vanishing, and looking more amused now, "I gave the housekeeper the week off for the holiday, and she's the one who usually does the grocery shopping, and the cooking actually, well dinner at least, on days that I'm actually there for dinner."

Kurt just sighed, fairly unsurprised by this bit of news, "You actually have a housekeeper?"

"Well yeah, it's not like my parents ever made me learn to cook or anything, or do laundry, it's all so—plebian."

Kurt snorted at the only partially sarcastic tone in Sebastian's voice. "I am just so not surprised right now."

"You adore me, even the parts that are spoiled rotten," Sebastian said, wrapping an arm around Kurt's shoulders as they took their bags and headed back out onto the street, deciding to walk the fairly short distance instead of trying to get another cab.

"Oh, you have no idea." Kurt's phone chimed announcing a text and he allowed Sebastian to take over some of his bags so that he could check it.

_From: Rachel_

_Ok, don't be mad at me, but I may have gotten bored waiting for Brody and just booked two plane tickets. :/ We leave at 7 AM on Wed and the flight back is at 11 AM on Sat._

Kurt groaned and ignored Sebastian's inquiring look in favor of texting Rachel back.

_To: Rachel_

_Rachel Barbra Berry! You are in SOOO much trouble!_

_From: Rachel_

_I know I know! I'm sorry! I just didn't want you changing your mind!_

"Ughh, I'm going to kill that girl!" Kurt got out through gritted teeth as he shoved his phone back into his pocket and accepted his bags back from Sebastian.

Noticing that he was still getting a strange look he rolled his eyes, "Rachel guilted me into agreeing to go back to Lima for Thanksgiving by using my dad as leverage. We agreed to look at flight info in the morning, but Rachel, being Rachel, decided to buy tickets for both of us without consulting me so that I can't back out."

"Fun for you, Ohio for Turkey Day, that's what you get for giving in."

It was Kurt's turn to pout, "You're still not going back?"

"My parents are in France, they knew I had no intention of going to Ohio for Thanksgiving and it just isn't worth it for me to join them there, so I am a completely free man, no classes and no irritating family." Sebastian grinned at him, "Good luck to you though."

"You suck." It was so not fair that Sebastian got to stay here and Kurt himself had to go deal with family and friends who still gave him pitying looks every time they Skyped, as though _Kurt_ wasn't the one to break up with _Blaine._

"Well, yes, but that's not what we're talking about right now, and aren't you the one who keeps telling me I'm not allowed to talk about sex?"

Kurt sighed and completely ignored the not unexpected comment about blowjobs. "Wait, so, you'll be all alone on Thanksgiving?"

"Believe me, I'm not upset about it, if you had ended up staying I was going to see if you wanted to hang out on Thursday, but seriously, Thanksgiving just isn't a very big deal in my family. Probably all the time spent overseas." Sebastian settled his arm over Kurt's shoulders again, giving him a comforting smile. "Promise, I'm not gonna be all depressed and listen to sad music and cry or anything, there's going to be a James Bond marathon on Syfy, already planning to watch it."

Kurt still wasn't completely sure, hating the idea of Sebastian being alone whether the other boy minded or not. But they had approached a very nice looking apartment building where a doorman was opening the door for them.

"Evening, Mr. Smythe."

Kurt blinked.

"Hey Jake, good day?" Sebastian was smiling at the man, and Kurt was trying to figure out why he was even bothering to be surprised that his friend had a doorman, and apparently an apartment on Fifth Avenue.

"Pretty good, so far anyway, have a good evening, sir." The doorman answered with a friendly smile.

Kurt returned the smile and slipped passed the doorway in front of Sebastian when he was gestured through.

They walked through a very nicely decorated foyer to the elevator, "If you have a freaking penthouse I'm just leaving."

Sebastian just laughed and leaned forward to press the button for the 12th floor, "One floor down actually. At least I can be pretty positive you don't want me for my money."

Kurt just shook his head and followed Sebastian out of the elevator as soon as it opened; accepting more grocery bags so that he could pull out his keys and unlock the door.

The apartment was pretty much amazing, Kurt could see Sebastian's touch throughout, but it seemed pretty apparent that the place had been professionally decorated.

"How exactly do you afford this? I know your parents have money, but do they really pay for all of this?" Kurt asked, taking in dark herringbone wooden floors, beautiful crown moldings, and once they'd gotten through the entry hall and into the living room there were large windows with a beautiful view of central park.

"Graduation present," Sebastian had moved into the kitchen and was setting the bags of groceries on a black granite countertop. "We already owned it, I lived here as a kid actually, for a little while anyway. Then when I decided I was going to go to school here, instead of finding me a smaller place, they just signed this one over."

Kurt set his own bags down on the counter, taking in the spacious eat in kitchen, and letting Sebastian take his jacket before disappearing back through the butler's pantry that separated the kitchen and the hall, presumably to stash their jackets in the hall closet Kurt had seen on the way in.

Sebastian was grinning at him when he got back, "I know, I really am a spoiled brat. Everything is just kind of falling into place for you right now isn't it?"

"You could _definitely _say that there are some things that make a lot more sense now." Kurt shook his head and started pulling things from the bags. "I'm going to need a large cast-iron skillet, I probably should have made sure you had one before-hand, if absolutely necessary I can just use a plan skillet."

"Uhh," Sebastian spun on his heel, eyeing various cabinets before finding the one he was looking for. "I think—it's in…"

Kurt, who had found a drawer of silverware, was piercing the potatoes before he could place them in the microwave, turned so he could watch Sebastian digging through cabinets in unbridled amusement.

"Aha!" The taller boy turned, brandishing a large cast-iron skillet, and handed it over like he was presenting a prize.

"So, do you cook at all?" Kurt asked.

Sebastian was pulling various bowls and cookware from different places throughout the kitchen, as directed by Kurt. "I learned some in Paris, at my mother's insistence, she thinks every man should have at least one go to meal that they can make edible."

"Your mother is a very intelligent woman," Kurt informed him dryly. "As long as you think you can handle it, I'm going to get everything ready for the brownies so that you can do the mixing and they can be in the oven, done and cooling by the time the main course is finished."

Sebastian eyed the bowls and ingredients that Kurt was placing in front of him a little warily, but did as he was told.

Cooking with Sebastian wasn't nearly as disastrous as he had thought it would be, he got the brownie batter made and in the oven with limited interruption on Kurt's part. Though there had been a brief interlude where Sebastian had thought it would be funny to smear a bit of brownie batter on Kurt's cheek, leaving a wide eyed Kurt to stare at him in absolute shock and Sebastian to immediately break into uproarious laughter.

Then Sebastian had offered to lick it off and Kurt had turned various shades of red while simultaneously wiping the batter off as quickly as humanly possible.

Dinner itself was equally enjoyable once they were finished, with no other—indecencies. "It's really depressing to think that you live with someone who doesn't even appreciate food this amazing."

Kurt flushed happily at the praise. "It's true, though, no one has ever truly appreciated my cooking. I got pretty strict with the healthy meals after dads heart attack, and he's a very simple guy when it comes to his food."

He waved a hand over the plates of food in front of them, "He's a steak and potatoes kind of guy, but herbes de Provence and what he would consider 'fancy mustard' isn't really his kind of thing. Finn is suspicious of anything he can't pronounce, which happens quite often, Carole was usually my only ally when it came to the kitchen, and admittedly I went out of her league in my enthusiasm a few times."

Sebastian just smiled at him, "My mom would love you, she was always trying to get me into cooking with her. It was just never my thing though; I swear to God I think sometimes she wished I was a little more of a stereotypical gay."

Kurt snorted, having fought against the idea of being considered a stereotype most of his life. "I can't even begin to imagine that."

Once Sebastian had finished stuffing his face, honestly, the boy was almost as bad as Finn when he wasn't in public; they took their brownies into the living room.

"What did you get to watch?" Kurt asked, snuggling into the arm of a plush red couch.

Sebastian shot him a grin, "Well, I was going to get Magic Mike, but then I thought about how jealous I would probably get if you spent almost two hours drooling over Channing Tatum's abs."

Kurt rolled his eyes at him, "I do not drool."

"Sure you don't Sweetheart," Sebastian popped a DVD into the player and picked up a remote before moving back over to sit next to Kurt on the couch, throwing an arm around his shoulders and pressing in close. Probably closer than was strictly friendly, but Kurt couldn't really find it in himself to complain, or move. Rachel had been right, the whole evening had been incredibly date-like and Kurt was having a very hard time reminding himself of the reasons why dating Sebastian now would be a bad idea.

He let himself move a smidge closer; ignoring the smug smile that immediately appeared on Sebastian's face.

"Movie, Smythe, what are we watching?" He asked, pulling his legs up into the couch, trying not to smile when Sebastian automatically moved his legs so that Kurt could press his constantly cold feet under his thighs.

"Prometheus," Sebastian snickered when Kurt stiffened against him, _almost_ unnoticeably. "I figured if I didn't want you drooling over other guys, I could pick something that would insure that I had you halfway in my lap at least 30 minutes in, even if it was just out of fear."

Kurt pouted and punched the other boy in his side, amused when he let out an exaggerated puff of air and rubbed at the spot. "I don't get scared."

"Riiight, so when we went to see Paranormal Activity 4, you didn't nearly lose your mind and hide behind me through half the movie."

"Shut up and start the movie."

Sebastian snickered, but pressed play and wrapped his arm more firmly around him, adjusting them slightly until Kurt's head was tucked under his chin.

_This is fine_ Kurt thought to himself focusing on the movie once Sebastian had skipped through the previews, _friends cuddle all of the time. This is completely platonic._

And okay, that was total bullshit, but it felt so good cuddled up with Sebastian, he decided to officially stop caring.

Either he was giving off signals, or Sebastian just had really good timing, because about 30 seconds after Kurt decided to stop caring and subsequently stopped paying attention to the movie, becoming much more focused on the body that was pressed so firmly against his own, the other boy began lightly running his fingers up and down Kurt's forearm. He was fairly certain that Sebastian didn't even realize he was doing it, but it got Kurt's attention either way.

Completely giving up on the movie he pulled away from Sebastian, just enough to be able to look into his green eyes.

"Hey, you okay?" Sebastian looked confused; he picked up the remote and pressed the pause button. "If the movie is really bothering you we can take it out and watch something else."

Kurt sighed, and then with only about 15 seconds of deliberation he was leaning forward and pressing his lips against Sebastian's.

Their one previous kiss had been wonderfully sweet, surprisingly so even, but that was not what Kurt was looking for in this one. He brought his hand up to tangle his fingers in the short, soft hair at the nape of Sebastian's neck using the new grip to tug the other boy closer so that their mouths could be pressed together more firmly.

Sebastian groaned against him and tilted his head, lips parting to let his tongue run lightly against Kurt's lower lip.

Kurt shivered and let loose a small sound he probably wouldn't be proud of later, parting his own lips to allow Sebastian entry. Another shudder wracked his frame when Sebastian immediately began to explore, running his tongue along the roof of his mouth before pulling back to nip lightly at first Kurt's upper lip, and then the bottom, and _God_ the other boy tasted like chocolate, and something that was just distinctly _Sebastian_, Kurt was fairly certain it was the best thing in the world.

A large hand moved to press against the small of his back, Sebastian had never admitted to knowing what that simple touch did to him, but Kurt definitely got the feeling that he actually did. The hand on his back was used to draw him closer, and once again Sebastian's tongue was in his mouth, encouraging Kurt to do some exploration himself.

He had no idea when it happened or how long it had been, but the next thing he knew Kurt was laid out on his back, Sebastian's very solid form above him, lips nipping down the long pale column of his neck. He was making those embarrassing noises again and Sebastian's hand had dipped beneath his shirt and was now stroking at the soft skin of his side.

Completely without thought he pressed his hips upwards, seeking something, anything, he let his hips grind up against Sebastian, finding an answering hardness pressing against his thigh.

Sebastian groaned at the sudden pressure, "God, Kurt, you feel so fucking good."

It was ridiculous, there was absolutely no reason for him to freak out, if he was being completely honest, Kurt had wanted this since Sebastian had kissed him the first time.

He still stiffened, bringing a hand up to press at Sebastian's shoulder, "Wait, Sebastian."

The words didn't immediately penetrate the fog the other boy seemed to be in, he continued to mouth at Kurt's neck and brought the hand under Kurt's shirt up to tweak at a nipple.

"Oh my God!" Kurt couldn't help but moan, that felt _amazing_, "Wait, Sebastian—Bas, just, wait a sec, please."

The nickname seemed to get through to him, because suddenly darkened green eyes were gazing down at him, filled with confusion and a definite amount of lust. "Baby, what's wrong?"

And Kurt had _never_ thought he would like being called baby, it just sounded so juvenile and ridiculous when he heard other people say it. But hearing it come from Sebastian, with his voice all husky and undeniably sexy, Kurt found that he had absolutely no problem with the nickname.

"I'm sorry, I just," Kurt sighed, bringing his hand up to run his fingers through the other boy's hair. "I'm sorry, I don't think I—"

He saw the moment that realization dawned in Sebastian's eyes along with the closest thing to frustration he'd witnessed in the boy since they'd started spending time together. Then a few seconds later he seemed to come to another conclusion and was immediately pulling away. "_Shit,_ I'm _sorry_, Kurt, I didn't mean to push anything. You kissed me so I just thought you were okay, I should have asked—"

Kurt immediately felt like a jerk for making Sebastian think he'd been taking advantage, and was quick to try and convince him that wasn't what he'd intended. "No! God, no! Bas, that's not what I meant, you didn't do anything wrong. That was kind of amazing actually, I just I know this has to be really frustrating for you, and I'm bound to start getting on your nerves eventually, it's just—"

He sat up, running his hands through his hair in his frustration, "I'm the one who kissed you, and I shouldn't be sitting here freaking out right now. But I never _meant_ to kiss you, because I know myself, and I know I'm not really _ready _for this yet, which is probably just stupid, but there's still all of this crap with Blaine. I really, really wanted to though, and you were just sitting there being so freaking perfect and understanding and oh my god, _I _took advantage of you!"

"Woah! Hey, no, come on," Sebastian took his hands and tugged him closer, forcing Kurt to meet his eyes. "Stop, you didn't take _advantage _of me, Sweetheart, I assure you, I _wanted_ you to kiss me, and if it's not what you really wanted then I'm glad you stopped me, because the last thing I want is for us to ever do anything that you might regret, even a little bit."

Sebastian smiled at him, soft and surprisingly gentle, "And you're right, it is definitely a little frustrating, but I don't think you needing time is _stupid_. I've never been in a relationship where the other person really mattered to me, so it's kind of hard for me to really understand what you're going through because of what that dumb ass did to you. But that's fine, I accept it whether I understand it or not."

He leaned back against the couch, feeling an annoying moisture gathering in his eyes. "Now you're just being all annoyingly perfect and making me want to kiss you again."

"Yeah, well, now I'm not going to let you," Sebastian grinned at him. "You're obviously under the influence of my awesome-ness and your judgment can't be trusted."

Kurt smiled back at him, reaching over to tug Sebastian close again, "Fine, no more kissing, but can we finish the movie and cuddle?"

"Cuddling is definitely okay."

"I really am sorry for being a gigantic tease, I promise I _am _getting there," Kurt sighed against his shoulder.

Sebastian snorted and pressed play on the remote again, "I suppose since you were cockblocking yourself as well and can feel my pain, I forgive you."

Kurt rolled his eyes, but still smiled, incredibly glad that this wasn't anywhere near as awkward as it probably should have been, and settled back to watch the movie.

Thirty minutes after the movie was over found them laid out on the couch facing each other, with more brownies, just talking while being careful to avoid the topic of their earlier unexpected make out session.

Kurt sighed when his phone went off, alerting him to a text, he moved up on his knees and reached across Sebastian, who used the opportunity to nudge at Kurt in such a way that he lost his balance and landed on top of him in a fit of laughter. Phone in hand he smacked at Sebastian's shoulder.

"Jerk!"

"You love it," Sebastian wrapped an arm around him, so that he was forced to lay pressed against the other boy.

Sebastian caught the look Kurt was sending him and grinned, "What, this is just more cuddling, which is an extension of hugging, which is something that friends do, we've established this before. No kissing, promise."

Kurt snickered, undeniably amused by his logic, but simply snuggled into the embrace and brought his phone up to check his message, frowning when he saw who it was from. Seriously, the boy had the world's worst timing _ever._

_From: Blaine_

_Hey, Rachel said on Facebook that you two are flying in for Thanksgiving, and staying until Saturday morning, I was hoping we could get coffee while you're here. I know you'll probably want to spend Wed and Thurs with your family, but maybe we can get together on Friday? :)_

Kurt stared at his phone blankly for a moment then turned to see that Sebastian had closed his eyes, the arm that wasn't wrapped around Kurt tucked behind his head, looking for all the world like he was napping.

He smiled fondly at the picture the other boy made, before turning back to his phone, maybe this was what he needed to really move on and actually be _ready _to date Sebastian. To be able to sit across from his ex and talk to him like a civilized person, as a friend.

Biting his lip he typed up his reply.

_To: Blaine_

_Sure, how about we meet at the Lima Bean at 12 on Friday?_

He tossed his phone back onto the side table, not particularly concerned with Blaine's response.

Sebastian sighed, and when he spoke his voice was rougher than usual, leading Kurt to think that maybe he had been a lot closer to taking a nap than he had thought. "Anything important?"

Kurt sat up to stretch, thinking that if Sebastian was half-way asleep then it was probably about time for him to head home. "Not particularly, apparently Rachel put it on Facebook that we're going home on Wednesday. That was Blaine wanting to meet up for coffee while I'm back in Lima."

Even without being laid out on top of the other boy, Kurt could still feel it when Sebastian stiffened.

"Oh?" That single syllable seemed to hold more than Kurt could decipher, leaving him exceedingly confused. "What'd you say?"

Sebastian's eyes were open now, and he was staring straight into Kurt's own increasingly worried gaze.

Kurt blinked, not understanding why the idea of coffee with his ex was garnering this kind of response, "I said we could meet up on Friday. I plan on spending as much time as I can with my family, but I figured I could spare half an hour to have coffee with a friend."

Sebastian frowned, sat up and ran a hand through his hair in a blatantly irritated gesture, "Right."

Kurt watched him, bemused, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sebastian breathed out, but it definitely didn't sound like he _meant_ nothing. "Absolutely nothing, I hope you have a great time in Lima."

"Seriously, Bas, _something _is wrong." He was getting a little exasperated at this point. "You know I agreed to be friends with Blaine, it's not like this is a big deal."

Sebastian turned to study him, carefully, seeming to take in every minute detail, "No, you're right, it's no big deal. But it's late, you should probably head home, I imagine you'll have a lot to do tomorrow to get ready for your trip."

Kurt was startled when Sebastian stood abruptly, seemingly to fetch Kurt's jacket from the hall closet. Numbly, Kurt reached for his shoes, trying to figure out how this had been turned into such a big deal.

By the time he'd slipped on his ankle boots Sebastian was standing next to him, jacket in hand and staring down at him stoically.

Opening his mouth to say something, anything Kurt stood and accepted the jacket, but words failed him, he was actually starting to panic a little. He just couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that he was essentially being kicked out of his friend's apartment and he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

Sebastian walked him to the door and opened it, face still completely unreadable.

"Bas, _please_ you're mad at me, that much is obvious," Kurt's voice came out sounding irritatingly choked up; he was _not _going to cry dammit. "Is this about earlier? The, umm, the kissing?"

Sebastian's expression wavered, and when he spoke his voice lacked the edge it had held earlier, now it just sounded tired. "I'm not mad at you, I just—"

He sighed, "Just go see Blaine, and figure everything out, okay? I'll be here when you get back."

Kurt stood completely still, watching Sebastian carefully, like if he looked hard enough his friend would melt and tell him that he was just joking, and say that he wasn't mad at Kurt and sound like he actually _meant_ it this time.

He didn't though, and Kurt wasn't sure if he'd even felt this miserable when he'd broken up with Blaine. "Okay, um, I'll miss you. If we don't get to talk tomorrow I'll see you when I get back, Rachel said the flight leaves at 11, so I'll be back Saturday afternoon."

Sebastian nodded and smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, for the first time since they had met three weeks ago it was like Sebastian was completely closed off to him.

Kurt moved to step through the doorway, pausing when Sebastian made no move to get his traditional hug. There hadn't been a single time they had met up that didn't end in a hug.

Biting his lip, he quickly took a step back and moved to press his lips against Sebastian's cheek in a swift kiss. "I _will _see you on Saturday."

Sebastian smiled, and he couldn't be sure, but he thought that this time it had actually reached the other boys eyes. "Yeah, see you Saturday, Princess."

He only had a second to feel elated at the use of his least favorite nickname before Sebastian was closing the door.

Kurt wasn't sure how long he stood staring at the door before he finally turned towards the elevator, but when he left; it was with a determination to figure out what the hell had just happened.

**A/N 2: Yeah, so… don't kill me. I promise things will make sense soon, and I don't do unhappy endings, but I do like to throw a little angst into things every once in a while.**

**Also, I forgot to say in the last chapter because I was super tired and in a hurry, but the reviews and follows and favorites make me giddy. I loves me some feedback, I actually never had plans for a kiss in this chapter (things were worked out a bit differently in my head) but a reviewer mentioned that they were hoping for a kiss and it got me thinking, lol. Admittedly it might not have turned out the way anyone would have hoped for, but still, THEY MADE OUT! Yay! xD**

**Also, it's kind of become my head cannon for Kurt to have a fear of scary movies after the whole freaking out over the vampire thing at Regionals; the idea is just adorable to me. Also head cannon that Sebastian is a completely spoiled brat with only child syndrome, because it makes sense and no one can convince me otherwise.**

**Anyways, as long as my family who will be visiting for the holidays don't screw with my plans too much, there will be a regularly scheduled update on Thursday. **

**Oh, and this has nothing to do with anything really, but it still amuses me, my name is actually Rachel and my last name starts with a B, so whenever I'm writing Rachel's character or writing about her or anything I can't help but be amused because she is pretty much my total opposite. Not that anyone cares. Lol. :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**Warnings: I wouldn't call it bashing, but canon events are used, casting Blaine in an unfavorable light. Also, this chapter is completely tame (lol, though in the previous chapter I managed to make it 'time'), but there are plans for future smut.**

**Spoilers: Up to The Break Up, though there will probably be some throughout this story up to the newest episodes.**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

**A/N: Not really much to say for this one, Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!**

**I just finished this and I haven't even read through it, but it's five in the morning and I want to go ahead and post so I don't have to worry about it when my family gets here. So I'll probably regret that later, but if there's any terrible mistakes I'll do a read through later and fix them. But anyways point is if I don't do it now it really might not go up today, and I definitely don't want to do that.**

**Ummm, that really is it, I think… Hope you enjoy!**

"Staring at your phone isn't going to make it ring you know. Believe me, if anyone was ever going to have made that happen, it would have been me, I've tried _many_ times."

Kurt turned to blink at Rachel distractedly, "What?"

Rachel sighed, "It's really only been a day, and you said you haven't texted him either, so maybe there isn't anything wrong after all, he could just be busy. And you're going to have to turn it off now anyway; the stewardess is giving the pre-take off speech."

"He hasn't gone more than eight hours without contacting me in three weeks, Rachel. Something is definitely wrong." Kurt glared down at his phone before angrily jamming a finger down on the power button when it didn't magically beep to alert him of a text from Sebastian. "What I don't understand is _why_ there is something wrong! He _knew_ I had agreed to be friends with Blaine, I made sure to tell him that from the start, and I know he doesn't exactly like it. I even get that it's been easy to not think about, seeing as it's not like Blaine is ever around. But _still_! I just don't freaking get it, I'm trying to get over the guy, not jump his bones. I don't see why Sebastian felt the need to be such a jerk about it."

Rachel just sighed, hoping that what she had to say wouldn't get him even more worked up. "Maybe that's _real_ the problem, maybe he thinks you actually _do _still want to jump Blaine's bones."

Kurt scowled, folding his arms across his chest and huffing angrily, "That's stupid."

She rolled her eyes, "Maybe, but it doesn't make it any less of a possibility, I mean, how would Sebastian know that _wasn't_ the case? You _have_ been really careful to keep the interaction between the two of you 'friends only.' And then immediately after your little impromptu make out session, there was Blaine, texting you and wanting a coffee date."

"It is _not_ a date!" Kurt practically growled, but his posture did soften a little, his features beginning to appear more contemplative. "But come on, he can't possibly think that I'm just going to fly to Ohio and jump into bed with Blaine…"

He frowned. "Can he?"

Rachel shrugged and took his hand, squeezing tightly, "Try not to worry about it too much, okay? Just, give him his time, and then after you've seen Blaine and figured everything out you'll be able to go back to New York, and maybe you'll finally just _know_!"

Sighing, Kurt turned back to stare out the window, watching the runway pass them by as the plane finally began to take off.

* * *

It wasn't until about two hours later when he was wrapped up in his dad's arms, in the middle of the Port Columbus International Airport, that Kurt finally managed to stop stressing about Sebastian and realize just how much he had missed his family.

"You have no idea how glad I am that you changed your mind," Burt told him, squeezing hard enough that Kurt was fairly certain he was going to have problems breathing soon, not that he could bring himself to care. "I missed you, bud!"

Kurt just laughed into his dad's shoulder, returning the embrace the best he could with his carry-on bag falling off one shoulder and his suitcase balanced precariously against one leg where it had been abandoned the second he'd seen his father walking towards him. "I'm glad I changed my mind too, I missed you so much!"

He finally remembered Rachel's presence and pulled himself away, smiling broadly when his dad's arm stayed firmly around his shoulder.

Burt grinned at the nervous looking girl, "Missed you too, I know things are weird with all you kids right now, but that doesn't mean us old farts just start hating anyone automatically."

He held an arm out and Rachel laughed, nervous expression melting away as she accepted a quick hug. "I talked to Hiram and Leroy last night, told 'em I'd drop you off, no sense in two sets of people being stuck in hellish holiday traffic."

Rachel smiled, "Yes sir, they called to ask if I would be okay with it, I told them it _was _the only option that really made sense."

The trip to Lima was pleasant, Burt listening to everything the two of them had been up to in New York, making the occasional comment.

Kurt did notice Rachel giving him a few pointed looks when he occasionally mentioned something he had done with Sebastian, but was careful not to say the other boy's name. He was fairly certain Burt knew something was up, but he definitely wasn't going to try and explain the situation with Rachel Berry in the car, or even within a five mile vicinity of the girl.

By the time they were pulling into Rachel's driveway, Burt had been caught up on everything going on at NYADA and Vogue; a great deal of information the man probably would have been happy to live the rest of his life without knowing, and in return he had told them about everything in Lima and Washington.

The two Hummels both got out to help Rachel get her things up to the house and ended up watching the Berry reunion with a great deal of amusement. They were invited to stay for a bit by the two over-enthusiastic Mr. Berrys, but both quickly made their excuses.

Kurt had assented to Rachel's decision to stay away from the Hudmel home while they were back in Lima, so they wouldn't be seeing each other while they were in Ohio, at least until they met up for the flight back home. He thought it might have been good for Rachel and Finn to see each other, but he was hardly in a position to be giving the girl relationship advice, so he prudently kept his mouth shut.

Back in the car it didn't take long for Kurt to break under his father's side glances as they navigated the streets of Lima, Ohio.

"I've been seeing someone."

Kurt rolled his eyes at himself; the sentence had come out unintentionally rushed and high pitched. "Um, kind of anyway."

Burt was obviously amused, and wasn't even trying to hide it, "Oh?"

"Yeah, he, um, he's kind of amazing, it's been three weeks and we're not really _together_ because I didn't want to start a romantic relationship so soon after Blaine." Kurt started, fingers playing with the edge of his phone, which _still_ hadn't lit up with a text from Sebastian. "And he was completely supportive of that, though he insisted on wooing me."

At the even _more_ amused look on his dad's face Kurt rolled his eyes, "His words, not mine. But, things finally kind of started moving forward and I freaked out, I still wasn't sure what I wanted because of the whole Blaine thing and not wanting to make this guy a rebound. Then Blaine texted, asking if I would have coffee with him while I was in Lima and Se—uh, the guy got upset. That was last night, and we haven't talked since, I realize that sounds kind of pathetic now that I'm saying it out loud, but we usually don't go very long without some form of communication."

He took a deep breath and leaned his head against the rest, "Rachel thinks he got jealous because I'm going to see Blaine and he thinks that I want more than coffee from him. Which _I_ think is stupid, but the _more_ that I think about it, he does have a really bad case of only child syndrome, and in a really infuriatingly annoying way it would kind of make sense."

"You know, I can't help but notice that you're bein' pretty careful not to give me a name here kiddo." Burt told him as he hit the blinker preparing to make a right turn.

"Stop being so observant," Kurt huffed. "Fine, but, can you please not tell Finn, or Sam for that matter?"

Burt immediately looked concerned, "If this guy is someone you're embarrassed to be with or that you can't even tell family and friends about, then maybe he isn't such a great guy after all and you shouldn't be thinkin' about a relationship with him period."

"No, dad, it's not like that, I won't lie to you, there was a point in time when I pretty much would _never_ have thought of dating him. He's been through a lot though and he's changed, he's grown up, and I _really _like the person he's become. But I also know that no one else is going to automatically see him the way that I do now, and for all that Finn and the glee club are supposed to be open minded, they can be _very _judgmental, and tend to get into other people's business and then refuse to back off."

"Alright, alright, point taken." Burt glanced back over at him, "You gonna tell me who he is?"

Kurt bit his lip, "Do you remember Sebastian Smythe? I mean, you never met him bu—"

"You mean the guy that put Blaine in the hospital?" His expression was unreadable, which Kurt knew was never particularly a good thing.

"Dad—"

"Oh no, kiddo," Burt interrupted again. "That's who you're talking about right? The guy who tried to slushie you, and blackmail Rachel and Finn, and in general was a complete ass to you? That guy?"

Okay, so Kurt hadn't even known that Burt _knew_ all of that.

"Yeah, just because you're too stubborn to tell me these things doesn't mean Finn is, between him and Sam I know everything, total bigmouths, the both of 'em."

Kurt groaned, he was so going to murder his Finn and Sam in their sleep. "Dad, please, I know all of that, but when I said he's changed, I meant it. Sebastian is like a completely different person now."

Burt started to add something, but Kurt headed him off, "No, really. I—I know you remember Karofsky, and um, his attempt to—"

His dad sucked in a breath, "Yeah, Kurt, I remember."

"Well, Sebastian said some things, to David, before his attempt and he blamed himself. He turned things around after that, and it isn't fair to judge him based solely on who he _used _to be."

Burt grunted, fingers tightening around the steering wheel briefly, finally he let out a breath, fingers relaxing again. "Yeah, you're right, I've never met this kid, and I don't have a right to judge. Just, be careful."

Kurt smiled, "I will, but I honestly don't know how much there is for me to be careful with, like I said, he wasn't thrilled with me when I left."

It seemed pretty obvious that Burt was battling with himself after that, trying to decide what to say. "Listen, Kurt, you and Blaine were together for a while, and I can see how that would be intimidating for anyone who was kind of taking the place of a boyfriend you obviously loved a lot, especially when the guy knows how much you cared about the former boyfriend because he was unable to separate the two of you last year."

"Ugh, Finn and Sam are _done_ for when I see them."

"Don't blame them, Finn and Sam, especially Finn, only told me all that stuff 'cause the whole Karofsky thing was still pretty fresh in their heads, I think he just wanted to make sure an adult knew what was happening so that if things got bad I could step in."

They had finally pulled into the driveway, and between the surprising jolt of happiness he felt at the sight of the house and Burt's reasoning, Kurt softened a bit. "Fine, but they aren't getting off scot free."

Burt laughed, "You'll have to settle for Finn for now anyway, Sam went to spend the night with his family, he'll be back Friday morning if you still want to yell at him though."

Kurt rolled his eyes and pulled his suitcase out of the backseat, gently batting Burt's hands out of the way when he tried to take one of the bags from him. "I can handle it Dad."

"I am capable of helping my kid with his bags you know." Burt grunted.

"Yeah, well, your kid is capable of carrying his own bags and giving his dad a break," Kurt shot back, smiling at the man.

Burt snorted and moved forward to get the door open for him, "Smart ass, good to see NYC hasn't changed you too much."

Kurt's retort was interrupted by Carole's sudden appearance in the doorway, "Kurt! I'm so glad to see you sweetie!"

He laughed when he was immediately swept into a hug; he wrapped his arms around his step-mother, who smelled comfortingly like nutmeg and cinnamon. "I'm glad to see you too!"

"Sorry, sorry," Carole told him as she pulled back, wiping at her eyes. "I'm just so happy you decided to come home after all, we were really starting to think you wouldn't. Now I get all three of my boys under one roof again for a few days!"

Kurt quickly pulled her into another, albeit quicker, hug, still not completely used to having a maternal figure around to care or consider him one of 'her boys.' "I would have regretted it if I hadn't, I didn't realize how much I missed you guys until I was here. My reasons for not coming were stupid."

"I don't think they were stupid, but either way, you changed your mind and you're here, and that's all that matters." She gave him another quick squeeze as she guided him into the house, "I have pies in the oven, trying to get some of the cooking out of the way so that tomorrow won't be quite as crazy. Burt, why don't you take Kurt's bag up to his room for him?"

She turned to Kurt who just barely fought of the desire to roll his eyes at his dad's smug amusement, "You can come help me in the kitchen, I've been working to keep Finn out of there since I got started."

"And where is Finn?" Kurt asked, ignoring his dad's soft laughter coming from the stairs as they both followed Carole's instructions. "I'm insulted that he isn't here to greet me."

Carole rolled her eyes fondly, "I forgot the French fried onions for the green bean casserole, so I sent him to the grocery store."

She glanced down at her watch, "Of course, that was an hour and a half ago, so there's no telling where he is now."

Kurt snickered and followed her into the kitchen, allowing her to settle him onto a bar stool at the counter while she moved around to check on her pies.

"So, tell me all about New York, I want to hear all the stuff you wouldn't say over Skype with your dad in the room."

Kurt sighed and settled his elbows on the counter, "Well…"

* * *

The day continued along that thread, he spent most of it in the kitchen with Carole helping her with what preparation they could get done for the big meal the next day. Then when Finn finally showed up, having run off to do something involving the New Directions. He ended up getting yet another very enthusiastic hug before settling in with his dad and step-brother, to watch some football game that he certainly didn't care about and occasionally staring at his stupid uncooperative phone.

He was almost surprised when Finn managed to wait until their parents went up to bed before asking about Rachel.

"So, how is she?"

"She's fine." Kurt sighed.

Finn fidgeted in his seat, looking like he was staring through the TV instead of actually watching Gone with the Wind, though Kurt conceded that the same would probably be likely even if he _didn't_ have Rachel on the brain. "Fine like she's really okay with everything and moving on or fine like she regrets the break up and wants me back?"

Kurt resisted the urge to scream, he had enough of his _own _issues, he did _not_ want to deal with Finn's, not when Sebastian still hadn't texted and he had to see Blaine in just over 24 hours. "Finn, she's—I guess it's a little of both. Honestly we don't talk about it that much, we've both dealt with our break ups in very different ways and we try to respect each other's opinions when it comes to the way we handle things."

"So, is she seeing that Brody guy then?"

Kurt winced, having hoped to avoid that topic all together. "Sort of, they aren't official, but they are kind of—together."

Finn just sighed and slouched further into the couch, "I guess I expected that, it just doesn't suck any less."

"You're a really great guy, Finn, I hope you know that." Kurt told him, reaching over to give his arm a quick squeeze. "And maybe you and Rachel will end up together, someday, when you've both grown up and are ready, or maybe you won't. But either way, you are going to find someone who is perfect for you and she's going to be amazing. In order for that to happen though, you have to move on and actually do the growing up."

Finn grinned at him, though a little sadness still lurked in his eyes, "Thanks bro. That's really nice of you to say."

"It's true Finn; you just have to work to get to that point and learn to see it for yourself."

Finn threw an arm around Kurt's shoulders and gripped him in a quick half hug. "So what about you? How are you coping with the whole Blaine thing? According to him you're seeing someone but it's not serious."

Kurt rolled his eyes; _Blaine_ was going around telling _Finn _about the level of seriousness in _Kurt's _relationships? Somehow he wasn't all that surprised.

Finn seemed to realize he'd said something to irritate Kurt because he was immediately backpedaling. "It's not like he was going around telling everybody about it or anything, it's just that he was pretty upset a few weeks ago and now that I'm directing glee club I just kind of felt like I should try and talk to him, that's when he told me."

"It's fine, and I'm not really seeing someone, well, sort of, but we're just friends for now. I may have exaggerated a little when I told Blaine about it because I hoped it would discourage him from trying to win me back or something." Kurt rubbed at the bridge of his nose in an attempt to alleviate a growing headache. "Not that it's worked very well; he's still constantly talking about how we should try to start over once he moves to New York."

"So, you don't want to start over?" Finn asked, brows drawing together, obviously unsure as to whether the continuation of the conversation would be a good thing or not.

Kurt shrugged, "No, not now anyway, I don't trust him anymore; that won't magically change just because we're in the same city."

"But you're going out with him on Friday aren't you?"

"Seriously?" Kurt sighed. When the hell had Finn and Blaine become best buddies? "Yes, but it's just coffee, and I only agreed to see him because I want to move on and I feel like being able to sit down and be pleasant would be a big step in the right direction."

Finn gave him a tentative smile, "Sorry, but you remember how it is with glee club, it's like even if no one says anything they still all know what's going on in everybody else's life."

"I remember," Kurt returned the smile, a wave of unexpected nostalgia hitting him. "Well, I'm going to go up to bed. I've been up since three this morning and I am absolutely exhausted, I'll see you in the morning."

The other boy nodded and stood to give him another hug and a grin, "Yeah, see you little bro!"

"I'm _older_ than you Finn Hudson!" He rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs, smiling despite himself.

* * *

After going through his routine, albeit a somewhat abbreviated version, he really _was _exhausted; he finally settled into bed. He took in the familiar scent of his room and snuggled into his pillow.

Unfortunately, he couldn't sleep.

His eyes kept straying to the tiny glow the battery indicator on his phone gave off. Finally he threw back his blankets and switched on the lamp on his bedside table before taking the phone in hand.

It was only 11 and Sebastian didn't have classes the next day, so it was likely that he was awake. If he didn't respond, well, that would just confirm that he really _was _mad at Kurt.

_To: Sebastian_

_I know you're mad at me, and I don't even know if you want me texting you, but I really miss you. I've been with my family all day and I should have been happy, but the whole time you've been in the back of my mind. I'm actually starting to dread my meeting with Blaine and I spent half a ride through Lima trying to convince my dad you aren't the Devil's spawn. Please talk to me._

His phone informed him that the massive text would be split into three parts and he felt extraordinarily pathetic. In the end he decided to blame the needy "Please talk to me" he'd tacked on to the end on his sleep deprivation.

Ten minutes later he'd been through half a dozen different scenarios as to why he hadn't gotten a response. Ranging from the original Sebastian was mad at him, to Sebastian not even being awake to get the message. Then there was his least favorite and yet the most vivid scene his mind had managed to come up with; Sebastian out at some club or bar with his school friends, dancing or sitting close to some gorgeous guy who lacked all the complications that Kurt came with. Maybe they were even laughing over the text from the irritating boy from Ohio who apparently couldn't take a hint.

His increasingly angst-ridden thoughts were interrupted by his phone ringing.

Kurt turned to stare at his phone slack jawed, that was Sebastian's ringtone. He picked up the phone, blinking as though that would change the fact that the screen was lit up with a picture he'd taken of the two of them on the Empire State building observation deck.

Finally he managed to shake himself out of it and swipe at the button to accept the call, "Sebastian?"

"_Hey Sweetheart."_

Sebastian's voice sounded mildly tired and a touch subdued, but he had called him Sweetheart and Kurt was fairly certain he might burst with everything he wanted to say and ask.

"_I'm not mad at you, I already told you that."_

Kurt bit at his lip, "Yeah, well, you have a crappy way of showing it."

He heard Sebastian sigh over the line, _"I know that, and I'm really sorry; I was just—"_

"I don't want Blaine." Kurt practically yelled, he was immediately mortified, but he plowed through anyway. "It's just, Rachel thinks you're jealous, _she_ thinks that _you _think that I agreed to have coffee with Blaine because I want to be with him or something, but that's the furthest from the truth that you could get. I only agreed to meet him because I want to get over him once and for all; I guess I got it into my head that in order to do that I need to be able to talk to him, cordially."

When Sebastian remained silent Kurt began to fidget, picking at a loose thread on his blanket. "Of course, if that isn't the reason, then feel free to completely forget everything I just said."

Suddenly Sebastian was laughing on the other line and Kurt wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up under the bed and swallow him whole.

"_I'm sorry, none of that was funny." _Sebastian's voice floated over the line, sounding relieved. _"You really mean that? You don't want Blaine anymore, at all?"_

Kurt sighed and when he spoke his voice was soft, tentative, "No, I don't want Blaine. So, you really were jealous?"

"_Yes,"_ the answer was immediate. _"Ridiculously so, actually. It's just we were kissing, and I totally got that you weren't ready, but you even used Blaine as an excuse when we stopped, and then the little fucker wanted you to meet up and you didn't even seem to hesitate, and yeah I know you agreed to be his friend because he's a clingy little shit..."_

Kurt couldn't help but snicker quietly at Sebastian's continued verbal abuse of his ex-boyfriend.

"_But I still couldn't help but think that you might want to give him another chance."_

"Well, I don't," Kurt smiled, even though Sebastian couldn't see him. "And I've missed you like crazy and it's only been a little over 24 hours, I've gotten used to all your texts every day, even the pervy ones."

Sebastian laughed, which made Kurt's stomach flip pleasantly the way it always did. _"You like my pervy texts huh? Does that mean we can start sexting now?"_

He groaned and turned to bury his face in his pillow, "You're horrible."

"_Yeah," _Sebastian agreed, his voice soft with what could be interpreted as fondness. _"But you like me anyway."_

Kurt smiled against the same pillow he'd been trying to smother himself with only seconds ago. "I really do."

Sebastian let out a quick rush of breath, _"Fuck, I miss you."_

"Me too, Saturday is way too far away." Kurt twisted around so that he could pull the blankets back up over his form, cuddling into the warmth and letting his eyelids flutter closed. "You'll text in the morning won't you? You're not gonna ignore me anymore?"

"_Yeah baby, I promise I'll text you first thing, and I won't ignore you anymore. You sound exhausted, what are you doing?"_

"Mmm, been up since three this morning and Rachel didn't let me go to sleep until about 12 the night before, freaking out 'bout getting everything ready." He paused to let out a jaw cracking yawn, his words beginning to slur a bit. "Mm in bed now, but I couldn't sleep 'cause I wanted you to talk to me."

Sebastian laughed softly, _"I'd make a few choice comments about you being in bed and wanting me, but you're so damn tired right now you wouldn't even be able to appreciate them."_

Kurt giggled into his pillow, "Seriously horrible Bas."

"_Go to sleep Princess, I'll text you as soon as I wake up in the morning."_

"Kay," Kurt murmured, knowing that he needed sleep, but feeling reluctant to actually hang up the phone. "G'night 'Bastian."

"_Good night Kurt." _He paused. _"I'll see you soon."_

Kurt hung up and set the phone down on the bedside table and was drifting to sleep in minutes, his lips curved into a soft smile.

**A/N 2: Originally this chapter was going to include the Blaine meeting, but it started getting pretty long and then I realized if I didn't cut off here with everything I have planned it would end up being a super chapter. **

**Yet again thank you so much for the reviews and favorites and such, it really does help to know that people are enjoying this. =D Much love!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Warnings: I wouldn't call it bashing, but canon events are used, casting Blaine in an unfavorable light. Also, this chapter is completely tame, but there are plans for future smut.**

**Spoilers: Definitely up to The Break Up, though there will probably be some throughout this story up to the newest episodes.**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

**A/N: Okies, so, this is about an hour and 20 minutes late, but I haven't been to sleep, so for me it's still Thursday. Yes, my world works that way.**

**Further notes at the bottom. **

**Enjoy!**

Thanksgiving Day passed in a blur of far too much food and, though his dad had been given a pass to eat "real food" for the holiday, making sure he didn't exceed the limits Kurt and Carole had set for him.

Kurt was even able to concentrate completely on his family now that he wasn't constantly worried about what was going on with Sebastian. Well, he could concentrate on them when he wasn't texting back and forth with the other boy. There had already been a text waiting for him when he'd woken up that morning and they had kept coming steadily throughout the day. His dad had actually threatened to take his cell away from him when they had all settled down for a ridiculously long marathon round of dominoes.

Now, however, it was Friday and all the warm and happy family feelings had faded long ago leaving Kurt on the fast track to freaking out.

Sam had returned early that morning, greeting Kurt with a yet another gigantic hug. Kurt had to admit that he'd been pretty relieved by the warm reception, he hadn't been sure what to expect from Sam, knowing that the boy had spent so much time with Blaine during the student council campaign. Though the blond hadn't actually come out and said anything it became pretty obvious that Kurt didn't have to worry about him taking sides.

After breakfast Finn and Sam had followed Kurt up to his room. They were currently sprawled out on his bed, having watched with varying levels of amusement as Kurt went through every single piece of clothing in his luggage in an attempt to decide what to wear.

"Dude," Finn started, sounding confused, "I thought you said this _wasn't_ a date?"

Kurt shot his step-brother a disgusted look. "It's _not_! _I_ thought we went over this."

"Then why all the freaking out over your clothes?" Sam asked from his position hanging off the bed. "I thought that was something you did for, you know, date-like activities."

Now it was Sam being subjected to Kurt's disgusted expression. "I always take the time to pick out perfect outfits for every occasion, Samuel. But if you must know, I'm 'freaking out' because I need to find something that says, 'I didn't actually think much about what I'm wearing because this is absolutely not a date' in conjunction with 'we're just friends and, no matter how much you bug me, that's all we're going to be from now on.'"

Both boys blinked at him before glancing at each other warily, Sam finally voicing their shared thought. "You, uh, plan on saying all that in an outfit?"

Finn nodded, "I'm sure you know Blaine better than us but, dude, I don't think he's gonna notice all that in your clothes."

Kurt rolled his eyes and held two different shirts up to his chest to examine in the mirror. "You are both absolutely useless to me."

* * *

Eventually, he'd clad himself in navy and gray, deciding that the cooler colors would send the right message. Of course, that was after Finn and Sam had both told him that dressing himself entirely in black might have been over doing it just a bit.

Sitting in his car outside of the Lima Bean Kurt glared down at his cell phone, Sebastian had sent him a message two hours ago to let him know he was going to be busy and wouldn't be able to talk. A glance at the time made him cringe; he had seen Blaine walk in about five minutes ago. Technically he still had three more minutes before their planned meeting time, though he knew he should probably have sucked it up and gone in when Blaine had.

With a deep breath he gripped the door handle, managing to shove the thing open with a bit more force than was strictly necessary. By the time he walked through the door to the coffee shop he'd managed to calm himself a bit, though his stomach had still tied itself in knots.

Blaine waved at him from what they had considered "their table." Kurt sighed at the familiar sight; over gelled hair, bow tie and, though he couldn't see through the table, he could almost guarantee that there were also flood length pants and boat shoes with no socks involved.

He was greeted with a 100 watt smile as he approached the table; Kurt was pleased to find that the smile didn't make him melt the way that it used to.

"Kurt!" He was more than a little surprised to find himself suddenly wrapped up in his ex's arms.

"Umm," Kurt carefully patted Blaine's shoulder with the hand that wasn't trapped against his side by the other boy's arms, he was almost positive that this was the most awkward hug he had ever been part of. "Hey Blaine, we should probably sit, or something."

Blaine seemed reluctant to let him go but did so anyway, gesturing at the table where two cups waited. "I went ahead and got you your mocha."

"Thanks," Kurt sat and reached for the cup, trying to keep himself from fidgeting overmuch; it was such a surreal sensation to suddenly feel so—uncomfortable around Blaine.

Blaine, oblivious to Kurt's discomfort, was beaming at him again, "You know, I don't think I actually thanked you for agreeing to meet with me. I know you didn't have to, but it means a lot that we can still have this. It's not so bad, kind of like starting over where we were in the beginning."

"It's fine, Blaine. I did say we would be friends, remember? This," Kurt groaned internally and waved his arm to encompass the Lima Bean. "Getting coffee, it's something _friends_ do. Not a big deal, right?"

The huge smile finally dimmed some at the emphasis he'd put on the word "friends" but he seemed to perk back up quickly enough. "Right, of course, you're right. So, how are things in New York?"

Kurt was trying to decide on the path of least resistance when Blaine's pleasant expression shifted to one of near—horror.

"Sebastian?"

Kurt blinked, there was absolutely no way Blaine knew about Sebastian, right? Then he noticed that Blaine was actually looking past him, towards the entryway.

He turned in his seat fast enough that he was fairly certain he gave himself whiplash. Sure enough, there was Sebastian Smythe, walking towards them with an undeniably amused smirk in place.

The swarm of butterflies that seemed to be completely attuned to Sebastian immediately irrupted in his stomach. The knot of nerves and anxiety he'd managed to twist himself into releasing instantly. He had to fight off the sudden urge to get up and greet the other boy with a huge hug. Before he could decide what to say, Blaine was speaking.

"Sebastian, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you all year," The strain in Blaine's voice had Kurt turning to look at him. "I figured you really had decided to make peace and stick closer to Dalton."

He kept going back and forth between glaring at Sebastian and shooting half panicked looks at Kurt. Kurt just barely refrained from laughing aloud when he realized that _Blaine_ was worried that _Kurt _would think that something had been going on between _Sebastian and Blaine._

Sebastian either lacked the control that Kurt had, or, as was more likely, just didn't care; he was still laughing when he closed in on the last few steps towards their table.

He winked down at Kurt before taking the seat next to him, ignoring Blaine's obvious bewilderment. "Why does everyone think I'm so young? First the Princess and now you, I graduated last year, I go to school in New York."

Blaine's triangular brows were furrowed as he looked between Kurt and Sebastian, seemingly desperate to figure out the sudden and confusing connection there. "Uhh."

Sebastian lifted his arm and draped it casually across the back of Kurt's chair, simultaneously turning mischievously bright green eyes on him. "Do I just look young or something, sweetheart?"

Kurt bit his lip and kicked at Sebastian's ankle under the table, trying not to laugh when he got a pout in return.

Sebastian didn't seem to have any plans to pull punches though, because before Kurt or Blaine could reply he was pointing at Kurt's drink. "Is that one of your non-fat, no-good things?"

Still not waiting for a reply he lifted the cup to his own mouth and took a drink, immediately pulling a face at finding that it was, indeed, a non-fat mocha.

"Why would you drink it then?" Kurt rolled his eyes and took the coffee back, "You know it's what I prefer, so why do you always do it?"

Sebastian just grinned at him, "Stuff tastes better when it's yours, and I thought I had finally managed to convince you that other things existed, things with fat in them, things that taste good."

Blaine looked like his head might explode. When he finally managed to come up with something to say, it sounded like he was choking on the words. "You, uh, you two have been—hanging out?"

Sebastian moved his arm from the back of the chair so that it was wrapped around Kurt's shoulders instead. "I thought you had told him that you were seeing someone, babe?"

Kurt elbowed him in his side, the weird noise that came from his ex an indicator that he probably wasn't taking this very well.

"_Sebastian_? You've been seeing _Sebastian_?"

Kurt grimaced and elbowed Sebastian again, just for the hell of it. Sebastian just rubbed the spot and smirked at him.

"We're friends," Kurt started, moving his hand under the cover of the table to grip Sebastian's thigh, careful not to place his hand to high, not wanting his words to be taken the wrong way. If the hand that moved from around his shoulder to cover his own was any indication, he'd made his point. "But yes, Sebastian is the guy that I've told you about."

"But," Blaine was glancing between the two of them, eyes almost comically wide, "You two _hate_ each other!"

Sebastian grinned at him, "People change."

Blaine gaped at him, "But you always wanted _me_!"

Kurt tensed; he didn't even realize that his grip on Sebastian's thigh had tightened until his hand was being carefully pried away and his fingers interlaced with the other boys.

"Obviously, my tastes have improved since then." Sebastian smirked, for all the world appearing to be the same asshole he'd been a year ago; his thumb gently tracing the back of Kurt's wrist ruined the image, not that Blaine could see that.

Blaine brought a hand up to rub at his temples, "You're serious? You two are dating?"

Kurt rolled his eyes, "I just told you we're friends, Blaine."

"For now." Sebastian said, eyes focused on Blaine, body shifting so that he was leaning into Kurt; seeming to come as close to staking his claim as he could without doing something that would undoubtedly piss off Kurt.

"For now," Kurt agreed with a roll of his eyes, he turned back to Blaine, "We're taking things slow, Sebastian understands that I don't want to rush into anything."

"You can't really think that you and _Sebastian _are going to have a real relationship?"

Kurt's eyebrow shot up, "And why would we not?"

"Kurt, come on, after everything he did last year you're going to date him? And seriously, _you_ were the one who was always telling be how sleazy he was and that I shouldn't be wasting _my_ time on him."

"First of all, youaccepted his apology for the things he did, and yes, I had a completely different opinion of Sebastian last year, but he's changed, he's not that guy anymore. Lastly, _you _had a boyfriend when you were talking to him, _me_! Of course I was pissed off that you were talking to him." Kurt tugged at Sebastian's hand so that their interlaced fingers were in full view on the tabletop, not particularly caring if Blaine saw it anymore.

For his part Sebastian very pointedly squeezed Kurt's hand once he was sure Blaine was looking and continued to trace along his wrist, "Shockingly enough, Kurt was actually there last year, I think he's pretty aware of how much of a dick I was. I know exactly how lucky I am that he's willing to give me another chance, but when it comes down to it, that's _his _choice, _not_ yours."

Blaine gritted his teeth together, completely ignoring Sebastian now and focusing solely on Kurt. "I screwed up and hurt you, so you decided to bring your rebound and flaunt him in my face the first time we're getting to see each other in weeks?"

Sebastian's grip on his hand tightened but he remained silent, Kurt sighed and met Blaine's wounded puppy-dog gaze. "That is not what this is about, I had no idea Sebastian was coming here today, and he is _not_ a rebound. I'm sorry you feel that way, but I've already told you, repeatedly, that I've been seeing someone; I even over embellished some so that you wouldn't get your hopes up about us having a chance. And you're right, you did screw up and hurt me, but that doesn't mean that _I_ want to hurt _you_."

Kurt very gently extracted his hand from Sebastian's, after giving it a reassuring squeeze, and reached across the table where Blaine's own hands fidgeted restlessly. With yet another deep sigh he placed his hand over his ex's.

"I meant it when I told you I wanted to be your friend Blaine—"

Blaine immediately cut him off, "You also said that it wasn't a complete impossibility that we might get back together. You seem pretty determined that that isn't going to happen now."

Blue-green eyes narrowed, "Someday, Blaine, I said it wasn't a complete impossibility _someday_, I'm sorry if I made it seem like I meant we might get back together sometime in the near future. If I remember correctly, I also told you in the same conversation that I had met someone, because I was trying _not_ to lead you on, or get your hopes up. But I'm kind of done treating you with kid gloves, you aren't a child, Blaine, and even if Sebastian hadn't shown up this meeting wouldn't have miraculously ended in us getting back together."

"I—" Blaine seemed to deflate then, anger fading fairly quickly, as it usually did with him, and leaving him without a leg to stand on. "You're right, I'm sorry, I just got so excited about seeing you and I turned it into this big perfect reunion in my head."

He took a deep breath and turned sad eyes on Sebastian this time, "I'm sorry about what I said, it was uncalled for and rude, and Kurt's right, I accepted your apology and I moved past everything from last year a long time ago. I was grasping at straws."

Kurt didn't have to look at Sebastian to know that he was surprised by Blaine's apology, "It's fine, if I were in your place I'd probably be pretty pissed off seeing Kurt with me too."

Without even really thinking about it Kurt removed his hand from its place resting lightly on top of Blaine's and threaded his arm through Sebastian's, unknowingly mirroring the position he'd taken over a year ago at the same table, when Sebastian and Blaine's positions had been reversed.

Blaine's eyes immediately zoned in on the contacted, mouth opening and closing a few times as he tried to settle on something to say. "Either way, I was a jerk, and I should have respected Kurt, I'm not in a position to judge anyone else's opinions, no matter what I think of them. You have to admit though, this is a little bizarre." He finally managed with a weak smile.

Sebastian snorted.

Kurt rolled his eyes and nudged him, "I can understand that, and you're apology is accepted."

He started to elaborate, hoping to finish his earlier thought, only to be interrupted by Sebastian, "Well, since I did butt in on your little meeting, I'll leave the two of you alone for a few minutes. I have to get the god awful taste of your mocha out of the mouth, and I desperately need caffeine, and maybe a cookie."

He carefully tugged his arm away from Kurt's and let his hand gently trail across his shoulders as he abruptly walked away.

Kurt watched him with a fond smile playing over his lips until he heard a quick intake of breath from the other side of the table. He turned back to face Blaine with a lifted eyebrow.

Blaine offered him another weak smile, "You _really_ like him."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Kurt blinked at him, "I—"

He turned to back to watch Sebastian standing in line, at some point apparently having gotten a call because his phone was now pressed to his ear. "Yeah, I really do."

When he faced Blaine again his bittersweet smile was still in place but he seemed to be a little more at peace. "And he seems to really like you too."

Kurt smiled, "I certainly hope so."

He caught Blaine's eye, "In order for us to be friends, I really need you to stop talking and acting like it's an inevitability that we're going to get back together. I really want to be your friend, Blaine. I care about you; I will _always_ care about you. I just can't be what you want me to be anymore and I refuse to be sorry for that."

Blaine sucked in a deep breath, turning suspiciously damp eyes away from him, and when he spoke his voice was choked up. "You shouldn't have to be sorry for wanting to be happy. I can't blame you for this, it's my fault you can't be happy with _me_ anymore. I meant it to though, you're my best friend, and I _do_ want to be friends with you."

He laughed a little shakily, "Just, uh, try to hold off on any details between you and Sebastian, _please_, for the love of my mental health."

It really wasn't even all that funny, but Kurt still dissolved into a laughing fit.

"Don't worry," he managed to choke out between giggles, "There aren't even any _details_ to share, and I promise to respect your mental health."

Blaine rolled his eyes, unable to keep the fondness out of his expression, though it didn't make Kurt as uncomfortable as it would have earlier.

Sebastian returned at that moment, Lima Bean cup in one hand and what appeared to be a dangerous assortment of pastries in the other.

"What's so funny?" He asked, retaking his place next to Kurt. "I got you a cookie."

Kurt rolled his eyes when a paper wrapped sugar cookie was placed in front of him, leaving a small pile of pastries in front of Sebastian.

Sebastian, already starting on a biscotti, returned his steady gaze and smirked, "Leave me alone, I'm existing on airplane peanuts right now, I'm starving."

The immediate desire to start asking when Sebastian had even _gotten_ to Lima, much less _what_ he was doing in Lima, had to be stifled when he decided it probably wouldn't be best to start asking with Blaine sitting across from them.

"You're disgusting," he finally settled on, "If you're hungry you should get something of substance, not a bunch of empty carbs."

Sebastian just moved his stockpile closer; seemly worried that Kurt would try to take them away from him. "Uh uh, Hummel, you can take my Oreos, but you are not removing all 'empty carbs' from my life. I spend time in the gym so that I _can _eat this crap."

Kurt just shot him another disgusted look before turning back to Blaine, who was staring at them in half amusement and half shock.

When Blaine noticed him looking curiously he smiled, "It's just, I guess in a way I shouldn't be so surprised. You two were always bickering with each other and apparently you still are, I guess it really is a fine line between love and hate."

Sebastian nearly choked on his latest bite of biscotti and Kurt immediately began to feel his face start to warm up at the mention of love.

Blaine just smiled his sad puppy dog smile again and stood, "Well, I should probably get going."

Sebastian muttered something about dropping bombs and running away, Kurt elbowed him again before standing to join Blaine next to the table. They exchanged another hug, this one thankfully not near as awkward as the first. This time Kurt returned the hug, wrapping his arms around his ex tightly.

"Don't let this change anything, we'll keep up with the texts and everything okay?" Kurt murmured softly. "My moving on just means that you should be trying to do the same."

Blaine sighed against him, his own arms clutching tightly for a moment before letting go entirely. "I'll try."

Once they'd pulled apart Blaine waved a bit awkwardly at Sebastian, "It was, um, something to see you again, Sebastian."

Sebastian snorted and smirked at him, "Yeah, same. See you around Hobbit."

Kurt rolled his eyes, but was unfortunately too far away to inflict any harm on the other boy.

"Yeah," Blaine shook his head, "Happy Holidays."

Once Blaine had exited the building, Kurt turned back to Sebastian, the question that had been itching at him since the other boy had shown up finally escaping him. "What are you doing here?"

Sebastian snickered, "That nearly killed you didn't it?"

"Yes," Kurt glared at him, "Now answer my question, actually that one _and _this one, how on Earth did you get a flight so last minute?"

"With obscene amounts of money and plenty of family connections."

"Okay and my first question?" Kurt asked, his tone laden with impatience.

Sebastian sighed, "You were so freaked out about meeting Blaine, I guess I figured I would give you enough time to sit down with him, the way you said you wanted to, and then I could show up and you wouldn't have to do the whole thing alone."

Kurt blinked at him, "Oh."

"Yeah," Sebastian snorted, "Oh. Admittedly, I didn't wait nearly as long as I had planned to; originally I was going to give you more time alone with him. I'm too much of a jealous asshole for that apparently."

Kurt sighed and moved to throw his arms around Sebastian, the way he'd want to when he'd first realized he was in the Lima Bean.

Sebastian chuckled into his hair, hugging back the best he could while seated, "Told you I missed you, apparently it was enough to inspire me to jump on a damn plane on Black Friday and brave the hordes of crazies to save you from your evil ex."

Kurt snickered and pulled back enough to look Sebastian in the eye, "Yeah, Blaine is _so_ evil."

"Shh," he tugged Kurt closer again, "Let me have my moment here, princess."

**A/N 2: Yeah, not really sure how I feel about this one, probably because this was one of the first scenes I envisioned when I got the idea for this stories, the whole Sebastian butting in on the Kurt-Blaine meeting. I re-wrote it like a million times, both in my head and on paper, it took forever for me to choose between this scenario and another fairly similar one. **

**Also, part of this was written last night under the influence of too much sushi and possibly a few too many Long Island Ice Teas. Which is also why the chapter is late, instead of writing yesterday I went and hung out with my best friend that I hadn't seen in a month, so apologies and yet at the same time… not really… xD I really loves me some sushi. So… yeahhhh… might have something to do with it.**

**Anyways!**

**Hopefully my dissatisfaction with the chapter is just me being overly critical of myself. Those who review and read and follow and favorite and so on and so forth continue to hold my complete and utter adoration! =D I'm a shameless attention whore… Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Don't be afraid to throw in some constructive criticism if you think it's necessary, if you feel I can improve in a certain area, lemme know so I can work on it! This isn't beta'd and I do try to catch as many typos and mistakes as I can, but you can't always get them all unfortunately. Much love!**

**Also, random little side not about tonight's episode, and technically last weeks as well… As happy as I am to be able to look at Grant Gustin's face again, I was still holding out hope that Sebastian would show up in New York, even though I soooo knew it wasn't going to happen. Also, did anyone else kind of wish that Sebastian and Hunter had switched songs? I so would have loved to hear Sebastian sing Whistle, lmao.**

**Okay, shutting up now, until next week!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Warnings: I wouldn't call it bashing, but canon events are used, casting Blaine in an unfavorable light (at this point it's mostly just Sebastian not liking Blaine.) Also, this chapter is completely tame, but there are plans for future smut.**

**Spoilers: I'm mostly ignoring everything that happens on Glee when it comes to this story as of the newest episodes, but there may be the occasional tidbit that slips in from the newest episodes.**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

Laughing, Kurt pulled away. "Yes, fine, you saved me from the big, bad Blaine. Happy?"

"So sarcastic," Sebastian snickered, bringing a hand up to his heart in mock hurt. "It hurts me, right here."

Kurt snorted, "Okay, so, seriously though; how did you get here? You couldn't have possibly gotten a ticket today, Rachel had a hard enough time getting ours and that was two days ago."

Sebastian rolled his eyes and popped a piece of cookie into his mouth, taking the time to chew and swallow before bothering to answer.

"I told you, I'm rich and powerful. I make shit happen, Sweetheart."

Kurt just continued to stare at him, completely unimpressed; he was, however, incredibly pleased when he succeeded in making the other boy fidget uncomfortably.

"You did not just walk into an airport and buy a ticket this morning. What did you do? Hire a private plane?"

Sebastian snorted, "No, and I didn't buy my ticket this morning either."

Kurt frowned, now just confused. "Well, when then?" Before Sebastian could answer Kurt lit up. "Aww, Bas, did you do it last night after we got off the phone?"

"Uh, no, not then either," Sebastian groaned.

Kurt blinked at him, completely at a loss now. "Okay, so, when?"

The other boy looked like the last thing he wanted was to open his mouth and answer Kurt's question. Kurt lifted a brow and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You are so irritating when you want something, Princess."

Kurt just snorted at the obvious petulance in Sebastian's voice.

"Ugh, fine. I bought them Tuesday night."

Kurt blinked at him, "Wait—what?"

Sebastian just shifted in his seat, continuing to look mildly uncomfortable.

A slow smile began to spread across Kurt's face, "So, basically, what you're saying is that you got jealous because I was going to see my ex, then kicked me out of your apartment, and then immediately bought a plane ticket so you could interrupt my meeting with said ex?"

Sebastian huffed out a sigh, "Something like that, yes."

Seeing that Kurt was still looking at him all smug and amused he reluctantly kept going. "Dammit, fine, yes. You said you were going to see the Hobbit and I freaked out! I figured you would get here and see him and he would bat his stupidly long eyelashes at you and work some kind of Shire magic and you would forgive him. So I decided I wasn't going to go down without a fight. I figured I could show up and distract you and then he could bat his eyelashes all he wanted and hopefully it wouldn't matter."

Kurt was trying desperately to keep a straight face as he watched Sebastian twitch in his seat, he was failing pretty miserably. "You are the most adorable thing, ever."

Sebastian's eyes narrowed, "I am _not_ adorable!"

"Oh yes you are. That is the most stupidly cute and absolutely _adorable_, albeit ridiculously misguided, thing anyone has ever done for me."

"Okay, listen Hummel, cute and adorable are not qualities of a Smythe man, especially this one." Sebastian scowled at him. "Sarcastic? Sure. Devastatingly handsome? Abso-fucking-lutely. Intelligent, wealthy, persistent, god-like in the bedroom, just a few perfect adjectives to describe yours truly, note the lack of _cute_ and _adorable_ on that list."

Kurt covered his mouth with his hand, trying to keep his laughter under control, "You forgot modest."

Sebastian shot him a look, seemingly truly disgusted at being considered adorable.

"You know, I happen to _like_ adorable," Kurt told him. "You do adorable things like that and it kind of makes me want to kiss you again."

Sebastian turned so that he was facing him, green eyes gleaming contemplatively, "Really?" He grinned at Kurt, breaking off another piece of cookie, "I might be able to work on the cute thing."

"Uh huh," Kurt finally began nibbling at his own cookie, not breaking eye contact, "I thought you might reconsider."

"You know, wasn't that supposed to be something we could do after you dealt with Brows?" Sebastian leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table, expression becoming somewhat serious.

Kurt froze, subconsciously licking his lips to gather the remnants of cookie crumbs, his eyes drifting to Sebastian's mouth. When he eventually spoke his voice came out breathier than intended, "Oh, um, yes, I think I might have said something to that effect."

Sebastian fought off a sigh, mentally preparing himself to do a bit more waiting. "It's fine, Kurt, I wasn't trying to freak you out. I've already told you, this goes at your pace, whatever that may be."

Kurt sighed and shifted so that he could slip his hand into Sebastian's again, twisting their fingers together and smiling when Sebastian moved to accommodate him immediately. "I swear, I'm not freaking out, it's just; and this probably makes me an awful freaking person after everything you've done, but I was thinking we could wait and work things out when we get back to New York?"

The hand in his tightened its grip and Sebastian smiled at him, "Seriously, it's fine, I can handle another day."

"Good, because I was thinking," Kurt took a deep breath, "Since you're so hungry, I mean, we have a _ton_ of leftovers at the house. So, we could maybe go there? It's just, I told you last night that I managed to convince my dad you aren't the spawn of Satan, but if we showed up and I introduced you as my boyfriend, all of that would probably be ruined."

For whatever reason Kurt could not make himself stop talking, at this point he pretty desperately wanted to, and oh dear God why was Sebastian _letting him keep going?_

"I was just thinking it might be easier to ease you into the whole 'meet the family' thing if we did it as friends first, considering our history. I mean, of course, that's only if you _want _to go to my house, obviously we don't have to if you don't want to. Just a suggestion, you know, because you're hungr—"

"You're rambling, Sweetheart."

Kurt blinked at him, feeling himself begin to turn pink, "Right, so, it's just—up to you then."

Sebastian took a deep breath, "So, your house, that place with your overprotective father and stepbrother?"

Snickering, Kurt squeezed Sebastian's hand, "Yes, and Sam too, who might as well be another brother. But, there's also turkey and ham, stuffing and like, five different casseroles and seven different kinds of pie."

"You fight dirty; I really have to meet your dad in order to get pie?"

"You ask with a pile of _cookies_ in front of you."

That got him a dirty look from Sebastian, he rolled his eyes, "Yes, you have to meet my dad to have pie. Though, you clearly have nothing to worry about; you, dad and Finn can all bond over your ridiculous love of fattening, cholesterol inducing foods."

That was the end of the discussion. Unfortunately, Kurt's confidence faded quickly once he was back in his car on the road with Sebastian following along behind him in his rental. He was incredibly nervous about putting Sebastian and his family all in a house together, actually, he wasn't worried about Carole at all, he was sure she would be her sweet, encouraging self; his dad, Finn and Sam were all a completely different story. Whether Kurt introduced Sebastian as a boyfriend or a friend, Burt Hummel was never going to let him leave that house without hosting an inquisition that would probably involve the only partially intentional embarrassment of his son.

And that was just his dad, who at least knew that Kurt was involved with Sebastian in some capacity. Finn and Sam had no such forewarning.

By the time they pulled into the driveway Kurt had decided that this was quite possibly the worst idea he had ever had. Ever.

He still forced himself to get out of the car, waiting for Sebastian to start the walk to the front door.

He jumped when Sebastian's hand came to rest at the small of his back, scowling when he turned to find Sebastian smirking at him. "This whole freaking out thing you have going on here isn't really making me feel very good about walking into this house."

Kurt groaned, "Sorry, it's just, dad knows that we've become friends, as well as a whole lot of stuff that I had absolutely no idea that he knew. But Sam and Finn don't, which I'm sure will be special by itself, but it's all the horribly embarrassing things I'm sure my dad will say that's really worrying me right now."

Sebastian stopped walking, reaching out to tug Kurt to a stop as well, "We really don't have to do this right now, you know. I'm not exactly looking forward to the whole meet the parents thing myself, I've never cared enough to meet anyone's parents before. So, it you want to skip it, it's not going to break my heart. We'll do it later, much, much later."

"Man up, Smythe," Kurt rolled his eyes and grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket to re-start the forward progression towards the door. "We're getting this over with, you're hungry, there's food here, and there is absolutely no reason for us to not just go in there. You're important to me and my family is going to love you, and even if they don't they'll _know_ you're important to me, and they'll fake it for my sake. Dad's car isn't here anyway, so you won't have to deal with him immediately."

Sebastian followed behind him, pouting. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Princess."

"You're welcome."

With Sebastian grumbling behind him, he finally walked through the door. He could hear the TV from the hallway, based solely on the sound of the commentator he assumed it was some football game or another, which meant that it was either Sam or Finn. Carole didn't mind watching the games with Burt, but she didn't ever watch football when she had control of the remote.

Tightening the grip he still had on the sleeve of Sebastian's jacket he led them into the living room, sighing when his suspicions were proved correct. Both Sam and Finn were camped out on the couch, plates of leftovers surrounding them and eyes glued to the screen.

"Hey Kurt." Was all he got from Finn, who didn't even bother to look up.

Sam had actually looked up from the game to say hello, but froze when he saw who was with him, "Uhh."

"Hello Finn, Sam." Sebastian said, trying not to laugh as Kurt continued to drag him through the living room into the kitchen.

"Hey Sebastian."

Sam turned to give Finn, who _still_ hadn't turned away from the TV, a disbelieving look.

Kurt took advantage of his stepbrother's oblivious distraction and bodily shoved Sebastian the rest of the way to the kitchen.

"Careful there Sweetheart, all that manhandling might turn me on." Sebastian snickered once they had finally reached their destination.

"Oh hush," Kurt scowled, "Everything will catch up to him in about 30 seconds and they'll both be in here invading our privacy."

In the meantime Kurt began pulling plastic wrap covered dishes out of the fridge, "Come decide what you want and I'll heat it up for you, I'm starting to feel a bit peckish myself, so I think I'll join you."

Sebastian, being Sebastian, instead of just answering the question, chose to move behind him, wrapping his arms around Kurt's waist and resting his chin on his shoulder. "I like it when you're all domestic, it's cute."

Kurt rolled his eyes, purposely ignoring the way Sebastian turned his head so that when he spoke it sent puffs of warm air across his neck, though he unfortunately couldn't control the full body shiver it induced. "We've established that you're the cute one here. Also—"

"Hey! What the hell is Sebastian doing here?!" The semi-shout came from the living room.

Kurt sighed, "Also, my step-brother is in the next room, so get off of me."

Unsurprisingly, Sebastian took his time removing himself from his place plastered to Kurt's back.

"Uhh, dude?" Kurt turned at the sound of Finn's confused voice, rolling his eyes when his view was blocked by an amused Sebastian. He was quick to unceremoniously shove the taller boy out of his way.

"Yes, Finn?"

His stepbrother just stood in the doorway, his confusion written plainly all over his face, an amused if slightly concerned looking Sam standing behind him. "Why are you all cuddled up in the kitchen with Sebastian?"

Kurt immediately shot the boy in question a very dirty look, "We weren't 'cuddled up' Finn, I'm fixing him some leftovers and he was telling me what he wanted."

Sam's eyes narrowed, though he still seemed more amused by the situation than worried, and he pushed past Finn so that he could enter the kitchen, "Since when do you have to be spooning someone in order to tell them what you want to eat?"

"We weren't _spooning_, Samuel."

Finn glanced back and forth between the three people in the room, "Dude, why is Sebastian in our kitchen in the first place? You hate the guy, why are you feeding him our leftovers?"

Kurt sighed, continuing to fix a plate with the things that he knew for sure Sebastian would eat, "Sebastian and I are friends, we reconnected in New York several weeks ago. He showed up at the Lima Bean when I was there with Blaine and I ended up inviting him over."

"So, Blaine knows you guys are _friends _then?" Sam asked, for the first time his neutrality in the Blaine/Kurt situation seeming to slip.

"Yes, Blaine knows that Sebastian and I are friends, he was a little surprised but he's fine," _He knows _now_, anyway _Kurt thought to himself.

Sebastian snorted, "Right, so, now that, yet again, it's been established that we're friends and Blaine is okay. Can I have the food I was promised?"

Kurt turned; Sebastian lifted a brow at him, his arms crossed loosely over his chest. His posture didn't really scream defensive, not for Sebastian anyway, but it wasn't far off. But Kurt got the feeling that for a self-admittedly jealous and somewhat possessive guy, he wasn't exactly thrilled at the moment.

Maybe someday they would actually be able to spend time together without Blaine being mentioned, at all.

"I honestly don't understand how you're still hungry after all of that crap that you ate at the Lima Bean," Kurt wrinkled his nose at him. "Do you prefer ham or turkey? Or do you just want both?"

Seemingly appeased, Sebastian leaned against the counter next to him, "Both."

"Wait, so you guys are seriously friends?" Finn asked from his place still standing in the doorway.

Sam snorted into the slice of pie he was now munching on.

Kurt, who had just slid Sebastian's plate into the microwave, turned to stare at Finn, catching Sebastian's bemused expressed as he did.

Finn blinked at them all, "What? It's just _weird_. You guys spent like, a year, hating each other, and now he's in our house and you're feeding him."

Suddenly Kurt was struck with just how easy it would be to mess with Finn, solely by telling him that Kurt and Sebastian didn't plan on staying _just _friends. A quick glance at Sebastian told him that the other boy was probably having the exact same thought.

Knowing that that would absolutely be a terrible idea, Kurt shook it off, though he couldn't quite hold back the initial laughter at the look on Sebastian's face. "Finn Hudson, just, get a piece of pie and go back to your football game, Sebastian and I will be there shortly. Try to come to terms with the fact that we're friends between then and now, okay?"

Finn opened his mouth and then closed it, shaking his head and seeming to think better of whatever it was. "Yeah, uh, cool."

With that he took a plate that he loaded with three slices of pie and was gone, a far too amused Sam followed after him after sharing a commiserating glance with Kurt.

"You know," Sebastian started, watching Finn leave with his eyebrows furrowed and open amazement on his face, "I honestly was expecting him to say _something _about the whole photoshopping/blackmail thing."

Kurt laughed and finally set the timer on the microwave, with that done he stepped closer to Sebastian tugging at his still crossed arms until he wrapped them around Kurt.

"What's this?" Sebastian asked, amusement coloring his voice. "I thought we weren't supposed to be cuddling in the kitchen, because you're ridiculously slow stepbrother is in the living room."

Kurt huffed, "Fine then." Of course, the second he tried to pull away Sebastian was tugging him back.

"Wasn't complaining Sweetheart, just asking a question."

The levity didn't last long, not long after they finished eating Burt and Carole returned from where they had apparently been braving a few Black Friday sales that Carole had wanted to check out.

Finn and Sam had shared an amused look and then immediately vacated the living room, laughing quietly as they went.

Burt had gone into the kitchen for a beer (getting warning looks from both Carole and Kurt) without saying a word, before coming back to claim his arm chair.

"So," After five minutes of silently staring at the football game, leaving an amused Carole and a mildly uncomfortable Kurt and Sebastian. "You're Sebastian then?"

"Ah, yes sir," Sebastian jumped slightly at when he was finally addressed, moving forward to offer his hand to shake, "Sebastian Smythe, it's really nice to meet you."

"Yeah, I'd say the same about you but the first time I've ever even heard anything remotely positive about you was yesterday." Burt told him, as he shook his hand, "And even then, Kurt was telling me you two were having problems. Definitely wasn't expecting to see you here today."

"Dad!" "Burt, honey."

Both Carole and Kurt began to chastise him at the same time.

"No, it's fine," Sebastian interjected. "I was an asshole when I first met Kurt, there's not really any way to hide that, and I honestly wouldn't want to even if I could."

"Kurt and I have been through our past differences, backwards and forwards and apparently I did something really good in a past life because he's been willing to overlook the fact that I'm a spoiled brat and let me be in his life anyway."

Kurt couldn't help but snort at that, though he made sure to smile sweetly when Sebastian shot him a dirty look for interrupting his speech, and though he thought holding hands while trying to endear Sebastian to his dad might be a bad idea, he did move so that they were very nearly pressed together on the couch.

Sebastian sighed. "I came to Lima to be with Kurt because I knew he was nervous about seeing Blaine again, and I'm here at your house because he invited me over for leftovers, though admittedly he had to bribe me with pie. I've never really done this meeting the parents thing, but I think it says something that I was willing to do it for him, for someone I'm not even dating, someone I'm just friends with."

Burt continued to level a look at him that was completely devoid of any positive (or negative, thankfully) emotion.

"Dad, stop it," Kurt rolled his eyes, "Now you're just being a jerk and you promised yesterday you wouldn't judge him based on things that happened in the past."

"I don't remember making any promises."

"Dad!"

Burt sighed and took a long drink of his beer, "Fine, you're right, I did say I would work on the whole judging thing. You're a grown up now, you live in a big city, you have a job, and you've flown the nest. You have to let me get my kicks somewhere, kiddo."

"How about you get them in a way that doesn't scare off my friends?"

Burt grinned, "I don't see the kid runnin' for his life, do you?"

Sebastian, apparently feeling cocky now that Burt wasn't staring him down, slid an arm around Kurt's shoulders. "I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon actually; I'm pretty fond of where I'm at."

Kurt tried to fight off a grin, sometimes it was still somewhat surreal to hear Sebastian Smythe saying things like that talking about _him_. Now they were being said to his _father_, which just seemed to make it all more real. He was fairly certain that a great deal of his night would be spent on the phone with Rachel and pinching himself, trying to make sure the whole day hadn't been a dream, leaving him to wake up in the morning to go to the _real_ meeting with Blaine, all awkward and uncomfortable, and without Sebastian showing up like a very sarcastic knight in shining armor.

"Yeah, yeah, kid, don't go gettin' all touchy feely," Burt grunted, "For all you know I'm just tryin' to draw you into a false sense of security so that when I come out later with my shotgun it'll be that much more of a shock."

With that, Burt stood with the announcement that he was going to go heat up a late lunch.

Sebastian's arm had tightened around him when Burt started talking about shotguns, but as soon as the man left the room he was leaning forward to whisper into Kurt's ear. "You're dad doesn't actually own a shotgun, right?"

Kurt just snickered and stood to follow his dad into the kitchen, "Dad, stay away from the sweet potato casserole, it has way too much butter in it and you went completely overboard yesterday."

"Wait, babe, seriously!"

The day passed much the same way, though Burt did eventually dial down the intimidation factor. Preferring instead to ask questions about Sebastian's family, school and his future, thankfully all things were fairly easy to answer.

He also got roped into a Call of Duty marathon with Sam and Finn, which lasted until Kurt got fed up with the monopolizing of Sebastian's time and sat down himself, methodically setting about taking out his stepbrother and Sam before tossing the remote back down on Finn's bed. "Sebastian's going to come play with me now, sorry boys; you'll have to find a new friend."

Sam snickered, "Stay safe."

"Dude, what are they doing that they need to be safe?" Was the last thing they heard as Kurt closed the door.

Kurt laughed all the way down the hall to his own bedroom.

Sebastian threw himself down on his bed, which required Kurt to very quickly turn his thoughts in another direction. "I never would have pegged you as a Call of Duty enthusiast."

"I absolutely am not," Kurt scoffed, "But Finn used to bug me until I played with him when he couldn't get Puck or any of the glee boys over here. I don't believe in doing anything halfheartedly and he was always so amusingly shocked when I kicked his ass, so I made sure I could do it on a regular basis."

"Yeah, that makes more sense to me now," he folded his arms behind his head. "So, you have me in here all alone, you gonna play with me now?"

Kurt laughed and lay down next to him, using Sebastian's bicep as a pillow, "No, you know damn well I only said that to freak out Finn and Sam, not that it worked out the way I wanted it to."

"Tease."

"I know," Kurt said, trying not to sound as amused as he actually was, "Like I said, I'm a _terrible_ person."

"You really, really are, you've got me all into cuddling," Sebastian sneered. "Cuddling _without _sex! Do you know what kind of losers cuddle without sex being involved?"

Kurt turned and lifted himself up so that his chin was resting in his hand and he could look down at Sebastian. "I don't know; losers like you I guess."

"Baby, that's just mean." Sebastian pouted at him.

"Aww," Kurt cooed down at him, "Poor darling, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Sebastian huffed, turning on his side so that he was facing away from, "I see how it is, I fly all the way to Lima, Ohio for you, when I could have been sitting on my couch, in New York, watching a James Bond marathon, and you're just going lay there and make fun of me. It's cool, I get it."

Trying not to laugh Kurt scooted closer behind him, wrapping his arms around Sebastian's waist and tugging him close. He deepened his voice doing a fairly poor impression of the other boy, "Princess, sweetheart, don't be like that. I'll cuddle you without sex all you want, no matter how much of a loser it makes me. Then I'll send you an obscene amount of expensive flowers, because I am the sexiest, most adorable loser in the world."

Though he remained silent Sebastian's entire body shaking gave away that he was laughing. Kurt leaned forward and nuzzled his nose against the nape of his neck and pressing a soft kiss just below his hairline, incredibly pleased when the shaking gave way to a full body shiver. "Did I forget the part where I'm super rich and powerful? I get shit done, Princess."

"That is the most god awful impression of me ever, _Princess_." Sebastian's voice coming out deeper than normal was Kurt's only hint that he'd effected him.

Kurt laughed softly, dropping his voice to a whisper, "Yeah, it wasn't spot on at _all_."

Sebastian groaned, turning around so that they were pressed together chest to chest, "You are _killing _me here."

"Well, you did call me a tease, I was just—"

He was interrupted by the door opening to reveal his father. Sebastian shot up into a seated position, hyper aware of Burt's narrowed eyes staring straight through him.

"Dad, didn't you tell me earlier that I was a grownup? Don't you think that warrants a respectful knock on the door?" Kurt grumbled as he sat up at a much slower pace.

"Uh huh," Burt snorted, "And didn't you both give me separate speeches about how you're just friends?"

Kurt flushed a bit at that and instead of answering simply crossed his arms over his chest with a huff.

"Well, we're about to order pizza, you two come downstairs and let Carole know what you want, at least, I assume since he's been here all day, Sebastian's staying for dinner."

Kurt grimaced, "Actually, dad, Sebastian's on the same flight as me and Rachel, so we—" Sebastian shot him a borderline terrified look and Kurt rolled his eyes. "_I_ was thinking that he could just stay here tonight and we could drive to the airport together and save me from making the trip with Rachel and her dads. His family isn't even in the country, so it just doesn't seem right to send him off to an empty house alone when he could stay here with us."

Burt rolled his eyes, "Fine, but he sleeps on the couch, you can tell me the two of you are friends all you want, but that kid wants in your pants. You both have your own places now; you can be _friends_ all you want there. But this is a safe place where I don't want to have to think about my kid that way-"

And there was the mortification he'd been waiting for all day.

"Dad! Please stop talking!"

Burt chuckled, seemingly very pleased with himself, "Remember, we're ordering pizza, bring your asses downstairs."

Kurt threw himself back down on the bed, burying his face in his pillow, "Oh my God."

Sebastian watched him, trying not to laugh, "You know, I think I really like your dad."

"I hate you _so_ much."

Sebastian grinned, "Sure you do, now come on, I'm hungry."

Kurt couldn't fight off a fond smile as he was bodily dragged off the bed and pulled towards the door, "So adorable."

**A/N: Update, yay! So, seriously, I kind of wanted to have this up early today or even last night, but I swear to god, every time I sat down to write (when I write I hole myself up in a corner with my laptop and my headphones in and try my best to ignore the world) someone was freaking talking to me. I would pull out an earbud, think they were done talking, put it back in, and then they were freaking talking to me again. Obviously no one in my life understands how important it is that I write Kurtbastian.**

**Yeah, so, work sucks lately, and Glee is just, they need to stop making my response to Darren Criss' face sadness, because that is NOT supposed to be my natural response to his face (though, seriously, the Cheerios uniform went a long way in helping with that situation.) *SPOILER FOR SWAN SONG* (I would be happier about Kurt getting into NYADA, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.) Anyways, writing this has become my happy place, so yay for Kurtbastian and my imagination which allows me to pretend that this is real.**

**Anyways, I hadn't actually decided if Sebastian would meet the Hudmel's in this chap or wait till X-mas, but MiSa-sama-MiSa-chan and vampyreice both mentioned a meet the family situation in their reviews, which got me thinking, soooo ta da! I hope it meets expectations. **

**Oh, and a guest asked about the blue flowers that Sebastian got Kurt and if they would be the flowers that he got Kurt from now on. Originally I was just going to go with traditional red roses, partly to freak Kurt out and make him initially think they were from Blaine, but then I got to thinking that would be to boring for Sebastian. I had an ex-girlfriend once give me a really pretty green necklace that she said made her think of my eyes, so thus came the idea of Sebastian trying to match the flowers to Kurt's eyes. Part my obsession with Chris Colfer's eyes, part RL, and part me just wanting Sebastian to be an over the topic closet romantic. And to actually answer the question xD yes, it probably will be a thing.**

**Last thing, I'm already working on the next chapter (I usually wait till later in the week) which I plan to post ASAP, as a "At this moment I'm almost at 100 reviews and will hopefully soon actually **have** 100 reviews" celebration type thing. So as long as nothing crazy happens you can be looking for an early/extra update. I still appreciate all the feedback, follows and favorites, LOVE, SO MUCH LOVE! =D**

**Okay so, I seriously talk too much, and I lied, one last thing, I have a Tumblr now, there's nothing there at the moment except for this story, because I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but it exists and you can check it out if you'd like! :D Discordiah dot tumblr dot com**


	9. Chapter 9

Back downstairs after pizza had been ordered and Burt and Carole left to pick it up, Kurt and Sebastian settled onto the couch. Sam and Finn had wandered back upstairs, leaving the TV free and Kurt had turned to some terrible Christmas movie on Lifetime and was pointedly ignoring Sebastian's protests.

"So, why pizza for dinner?" Sebastian asked once he finally gave up trying to get Kurt to change the channel. "I saw inside your fridge and there are still enough leftovers in that thing to feed a medium sized army."

Kurt smiled, "It's kind of a family tradition, one that's been kind of warped through the years, but still a tradition."

"Pizza on the day after Thanksgiving is a family tradition?" Sebastian turned away from the TV, glad to have something to distract him from the ridiculous crap he was being forced to watch.

"Umm, it started the first Thanksgiving after my mom died," Kurt told him softly. "We had already established that Dad was an awful cook the first time he tried to make Friday night dinner."

Sebastian slipped the remote out of Kurt's hand and turned off the TV at the mention of his mother. In almost a month of friendship Kurt had only brought up his mother once, and that had only been in passing. He repositioned himself so that he could place an arm around Kurt's shoulders, not sure if the touch would actually be appreciated at the moment.

Kurt sighed and snuggled deeper into the contact, tucking his head under Sebastian's chin and taking the opportunity to get comfortable.

"Friday night dinner?"

"Another tradition, we had Friday night family dinners every week." Kurt laughed quietly, "The first dinner after Mom died, Dad tried to make a chicken, somehow he managed to make it look decent on the outside, but it was completely raw on the inside."

"I had no idea that was even possible." Sebastian snorted.

"Believe me, it is, after that I subsisted on frozen dinners and fast food until I was old enough to teach myself to cook, but we still had Friday night dinner every week. Well, when the holidays got close, Dad started talking about wanting to try again for Thanksgiving. I literally _begged _him not to."

Sebastian laughed, "How old were you?"

"Eight, and yes, I was an over dramatic brat," Kurt told him. "I think it upset him at first that I was so insistent that we not have the big meal. Still, he asked me what I wanted instead of the traditional Thanksgiving meal and I told him pizza."

Sebastian shot him an amused look, thinking about the fact that the boy in question had requested nothing but mushrooms, black olives, onions and light cheese on a thin crust pizza about 15 minutes prior.

Kurt rolled his eyes, "I was eight, I wasn't exactly carb conscious yet. Anyway, instead of being upset, my dad just laughed when I asked for pizza. He sat me down and told me about his first Thanksgiving with my mom; they had just gotten married, against the wishes of both of their parents, Dad was just starting up the shop and they were completely broke, so, for their first Thanksgiving Dad brought home pizza. I liked the story so much that for the next five years we had pizza for Thanksgiving."

"By then I had learned how to cook, so I planned this big dinner for the two of us, and it came out perfectly, but then by the end of the night it just felt kind of wrong. The whole pizza thing had kind of felt like some crazy way of keeping my mom a part of the holiday. I don't know if Dad figured it out or felt the same way, but the next night instead of eating leftovers for dinner, he ordered a pizza, and then we did the same thing the next year, and by the third year; it was tradition."

He laughed, "It's stupid, I know."

"Hey, no," Sebastian frowned and tightened his hold on Kurt, "If it's important to you, then it isn't stupid. I'm really glad you told me."

"Thanks for listening," Kurt sighed.

Sebastian turned his head and pressed a lingering kiss to Kurt's forehead. He laughed softly, "I won't lie, no one's ever accused me of being a good listener, but I can sure as hell try, whenever you need to talk."

Kurt snickered, "You know, I don't think you give yourself enough credit."

"I don't know, I'm pretty self-centered, I think I give myself too much credit sometimes, but I'm also kind of an ass so it's not all deserved and/or the right kind of credit," He laughed, fingers idly tracing patterns against Kurt's arm. "You just inspire to new heights I guess."

Kurt laughed so hard he was soon gasping for breath, "Oh my God, Sebastian, _so corny_!"

Sebastian huffed, "See if I ever say anything nice to you again."

"Aww, Bas," Kurt finally got himself under control, "It's okay, I like corny, you're adorable, remember?"

"Uh huh," Sebastian picked up the remote and turned the TV back on, settling back into the couch with his arms crossed so that they weren't pressed together.

Kurt pouted, shifting so that they were once again touching, "Sebaaassttiannn!"

Sebastian's lips twitched the tiniest bit, but otherwise he remained unmoved, eyes fixed on the terrible movie that he had been refusing to watch earlier.

"Well now you're just being childish." Kurt complained, moving again so that he could mimic Sebastian's posture, taking it a step further and crossing his legs. "You know, I was an only child for most of my life too, you aren't the only spoiled brat here, I can wait you out."

Things were quiet until Finn and Sam came back downstairs about five minutes later.

Sam glanced between the two of them, eyebrow raised.

Finn, surprisingly enough, seemed oblivious, "Burt and Mom aren't back yet?"

"Obviously," Kurt rolled his eyes.

Sam collapsed into the recliner, still eyeing Kurt and Sebastian suspiciously, "What's wrong with you two?"

Kurt sniffed, "Sebastian's being a jerk, he's ignoring me."

Sebastian's mouth fell open and he turned to stare at Kurt, trying not to laugh, "You little shit!"

"What?" Kurt's lips twitched upwards, "You're a corny jerk and you were ignoring me."

"You were ignoring me back! _And _you made fun of me first, and now you're throwing me under the bus!"

"You started it," He defended, finally unable to keep from laughing.

Finn frowned, "What are you _talking_ about?"

"I'm pretty sure they're having some kind of lovers quarrel," Sam told him.

Kurt grabbed the nearest couch pillow and threw it at the blond, incredibly satisfied when he got the unprepared boy in the face.

"Dude, they aren't lovers." Finn gave them all a weird look, like he wasn't completely positive that what he was saying was the truth anymore.

No, we're not, we're friends." Kurt rolled his eyes and shot a dirty look at Sam, "

Finn frowned and Kurt was fairly sure his stepbrother was finally catching on to the fact that he and Sebastian were just a touch friendly than two people who were _just friends _should be. "Uhh, right, but uh, you're happy right? Being his—_friend_?"

Kurt blinked at him, now about 99 percent positive that Finn had figured it out, "Yes Finn, I'm happy."

"Okay, well," Finn fidgeted in his seat, "Does Burt know you're uh, happy being Sebastian's _friend_? Or, that he _is_ your _friend_?"

Sebastian seemed to have figured out what all the emphasis on the word friend meant and had buried his face in his hands, shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

Kurt took a deep, cleansing breath, "Yes, he knows."

"And he's cool with it?"

"Yes," Kurt sighed, reaching over to pinch Sebastian, whose laughter was getting less silent.

Finn looked between the two of them, "Right, well uhh, I guess that's cool then, dude."

Sebastian snickered and then leaned out of the way before Kurt could cause him physical harm, "Okay, you have got to stop abusing me, Princess! It's not nice, I'm fragile."

Sam snorted from his place in the recliner where he'd been watching the exchange in amusement.

"I'm not abusing you!" Kurt snorted, but couldn't stop himself from adding, "And stop giving me reasons to!"

"Way to contradict yourself."

Kurt rolled his eyes and turned back to Finn, "Thank you, for not freaking out or anything, and we _are_ actually friends, we just kind of plan on being—more than that eventually. I just wanted to work through some issues first."

"Issues?" Sebastian asked sarcastically, leaning closer again, seemingly losing his fear of being harmed.

"Okay, fine," Kurt poked him exaggeratedly, "I had to work through _one_ issue."

"I seriously don't know who you two thought you were fooling," Sam commented. "Well, except Finn."

"Hey! It's weird, last time I checked they didn't even _like_ each other, much less want to date each other." Finn defended himself.

"I for one have no idea what you're talking about," Sebastian smirked. "_I _at least am the picture of discretion; Kurt's the one who needs lessons in subtlety."

Kurt gaped at him, "You, sir, are absolutely full of it. _I'm_ not the one who was turning himself into a human barnacle in the kitchen with Sam and Finn _in the next room_."

Sebastian was obviously fighting off a smile, "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

The front door opening interrupted any further comments.

Kurt cast an almost disdainful look at Sebastian, "Careful or I'll sic my dad and his shotgun on you."

"Why are you so mean to me?" Sebastian damn near whined.

"You just make it so easy for me," Kurt darted a look at an amused Sam and Finn and then glanced around to make sure his dad wasn't actually in the room yet before pressing a swift kiss to the corner of Sebastian's mouth. "I think we both know you like it."

"Hey boys," Carole greeted them with a smile, Burt walking in behind her, "Ready to eat?"

Sebastian hadn't taken his eyes off of Kurt, and the softened expression he'd adopted was wreaking all kinds of havoc on the Sebastian-linked butterflies in Kurt's stomach.

Sam and Finn shared an amused look, Finn stood and quickly moved to intercept Carole and take the pizza boxes from her. "I'm starving!"

"Me too!" Sam chuckled and stood from his own chair, murmuring just loud enough for Kurt and Sebastian to hear as he passed them, "Not sure about you two though, at least, I don't know that you're hungry for _food_."

Kurt scowled after him; pointedly ignoring the look his dad was giving him and Sebastian, "Actually, I am pretty hungry."

Sebastian just snorted and allowed Kurt to pull him up from the couch, following willingly behind him into the kitchen. He did toss a look at Burt over his shoulder, wondering briefly if the man realized just how in control Kurt was of Sebastian's life. The blatant amusement plastered all over the older man's face gave him the feeling that he did.

* * *

Later that night, Kurt was lying wide awake in his bed. He knew he needed to go to sleep, their flight wasn't super early like the one _to _Ohio had been, but they would still need to get up even earlier than he was used to in order to get to the airport.

The knowledge that Sebastian was downstairs, on the couch, possibly just as wide awake as Kurt himself, was keeping him awake.

With a sigh he glanced over at the alarm clock on his bedside table, 11:13.

He really did need to go to sleep, dealing with Sebastian and Rachel together for at least half a day was going to be nothing short of painful on a good day.

Gasping, Kurt shot out of bed reaching for his cell phone as he was hit with the realization that he hadn't thought to let Rachel know that he would be showing up at the airport with Sebastian. Or that Sebastian was even in Ohio, period.

_To: Rachel_

_You awake?_

He only had to wait about thirty seconds for his phone to ring.

"_Kurt? Is everything okay?"_

He snorted, that would really depend on Rachel and how badly she was going to freak out about finally being allowed in the same room as Sebastian.

"Yeah, everything's fine," he sighed, smiling as he thought about just how much he had to tell the girl, it felt like _days_ had passed since Sebastian had walked into the Lima Bean, not hours.

"_Are you sure? I kept wanting to text you all day to ask about your meeting with Blaine, but I made myself wait. Did everything go okay?"_

"It was great, actually," he said, a slightly dreamy note injected in his tone, Blaine the last thing on his mind.

Rachel squealed, jerking his focus back into the conversation, _"Kurt! Did you and Blaine get back together!?"_

Kurt blinked, "What? No!"

"_Oh," _Rachel sounded confused, _"You sounded so happy, I guess that was the first thing that came to mind."_

"Ughh, no, absolutely not, but! Guess who showed up during my painfully awkward meeting with Blaine!"

"_Um, I have no idea, I'm guessing whoever it was showed up just in time though." _Rachel sighed, _"It was really _that _bad?"_

"Worse," Kurt told her, "But, then Sebastian walked in."

He had to pull the phone away from his possibly bleeding ear at the high pitched squeal she emitted at his admission.

"_What!? But, he's in New York!"_

Kurt rolled his eyes, "He was, but apparently you were right about him being jealous and worried that I wanted to give Blaine another chance. He bought his plane tickets Tuesday night."

He was surprised when she actually laughed, _"Tuesday night after he _kicked you out of his apartment_!?"_

"I know, it's ridiculous, and believe me, I told him that." He snickered, "I also told him how cute and adorable it was."

"_It kind of is," _she grudgingly admitted. _"But, what happened? I mean, how did Blaine take Sebastian showing up?"_

"It was definitely weird. At first Blaine freaked out when he saw Sebastian, I'm pretty sure he thought that I would think that they had been fooling around. Then Sebastian made it _very _obvious that he was there for me and that we were only friends _for now. _Blaine threw a hissy fit at first; he accused me of throwing my rebound in his face and asked me how I could possibly think I could have a relationship with Sebastian. Then he made sure to point out that that it was _Blaine_ that Sebastian always wanted."

"But then after he'd lost steam and calmed down, Sebastian left us alone for a little while and he seemed to realize that Bas and I actually do like each other. Honestly I don't know if he's actually accepted it as well as he made it seem, but when he left he seemed okay, he did make me promise not to give him any _details_ about Sebastian and I."

Rachel giggled, _"That's understandable. So, what happened after he left? I can't _believe _Sebastian flew to Ohio just to sit in on you and Blaine, except that, I kind of can."_

Kurt couldn't help but laugh with her, "I know, it's crazy, but it's kind of a Sebastian thing to do."

After that he relayed the rest of the day to her, from Finn's hilarious obliviousness, Sam's infuriating awareness, his dads ridiculous threats of a shotgun he didn't even _own_, the talk to the almost kiss in his room, the talk about his mom and the actual kiss in front of Finn and Sam.

Rachel sighed, _"Your day was so sweet and romantic, and mine was so _boring_! So, does this mean you two are actually together now?"_

"We actually agreed to wait and talk everything out when we got back to New York, but at this point there isn't anything holding us back so," Kurt grinned and flopped back down on his bed, unable to resist kicking his feet a little in his excitement, "It kind of feels real for the first time. Like it's actually going to happen."

She squealed again, thankfully not quite as loudly this time, _"Aww, Kurt, I'm so happy for you!"_

He laughed, "I'm kind of happy for myself actually."

"_So, when is his flight back?"_

"Oh!" Kurt exclaimed. "That's actually part of the reason I remembered to get a hold of you, he's on the same flight and he rented a car at the airport so we're going to drive to Columbus together, so you and your dads don't have to come pick me up in the morning."

"_Doesn't he actually live closer to Columbus? Is he driving all the way back to get you?_" She gasped and didn't give him a chance to answer, _"Wait! Is he _there_?"_

"Well he's not right here with me, but yes, he's at my house," he snickered. "Dad ordered him to the couch, apparently it was insanely obvious that he wanted in my pants and this house is my dad's happy place where he doesn't have to think about his baby boy being defiled."

He snorted, "Those weren't his exact words, but it was all in the tone. Actually, I only even remembered to call because I couldn't sleep, it's weird knowing Sebastian's downstairs."

She laughed, _"Uh huh, I'm sure it being _weird_ is what was keeping you _up_."_

Kurt gasped, trying not to laugh, "Rachel Barbra Berry! Was there a dirty joke in that sentence?"

"_I don't know about a joke, but there might have been an allusion," _she got out through her giggling.

"Ughh, nothing is safe anymore," Kurt sighed, "I expect this sort of thing from Sebastian, but _you_?"

"_I can joke around with the best of them I'll have you know_," she said. _"But all joking aside, we do have to be up in a few hours and we need our beauty sleep, I was dozing off when I got your text."_

He laughed, "Alright, I'll try, see you in the morning, good night."

"_Night Kurt!"_

He hung up the phone and returned it to his charger, he turned on his side, pulling the pillow that Sebastian had used earlier closer to him. He breathed in, pleased to find that it smelled very faintly of the other boys cologne.

With a sigh he closed his eyes, beginning to feel drowsy; he only had to take a few more deep breaths before he was finally drifting off to sleep.

**Okies, so I had planned for this to be longer, but then, I had **also **planned for this chapter to be completely different then how it came out. Originally I was just going to do a bit of a time jump to them being back in New York, but I re-wrote it like three times and it just wasn't working for me, so now that's the next chapter. Then I was going to have this just be the beginning of that chapter, but I didn't like that either… for reasons…**

**Anyways, so it's short and kind of filler-y, but there will be another update this week, it might not be on Thursday though! If it's not, never fear, it won't be any later than Friday! Just depends on how my week goes.**

**Oh! And to anyone reading this on Tumblr, I was reading through and realized that a good portion of the end of chapter 2 got cut off somehow when I posted it. So, yeah, it's actually all there now… xD**

**Uhh, I think that's it, hope everyone is still enjoying, I still and will continue to appreciate every single review, follow, and favorite. You're all awesome! True fax. xD Ughh, I need to go to bed, sleep deprivation is bad for me…**


	10. Chapter 10

**Spoilers: I'm mostly ignoring everything that happens on Glee when it comes to this story as of the newest episodes, but there may be the occasional tidbit that slips in from the newest episodes.**

**Rating: PG-13, I think there's some cursing somewhere… maybe.**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

Kurt was awake painfully early the next morning. He had always been an early riser, his somewhat OCD love affair with hygiene and skin care demanded it. This was pushing it, even for him, especially with the unusually small amount of sleep he had gotten all week.

Though he would have loved to just lounge in bed, or better yet, go back to sleep; he eventually got up and shuffled into the bathroom. Using his time in the shower to attempt to wake up fully even with the knowledge that that wouldn't be happening until he consumed at least three cups of coffee. It was easy to get lost in his thoughts under the warm spray, especially with as sleep addled as he was. He was still having a hard time convincing himself that everything from the past four days, or even the past four _weeks_ was _real_. Part of him still felt like he might go downstairs and find that Sebastian wasn't actually there and that he had made the whole thing up in his head.

Ignoring the somewhat childish desire to run downstairs, just to make sure that Sebastian was still asleep on the couch, he slowly worked through his morning routine. He had given himself more than enough time to get ready, and he highly doubted anyone else in the house was awake yet.

At 5:10 AM he finally made his way downstairs, already dressed and prepared for the undoubtedly long day ahead.

His plan to quietly slip through the living room and into the kitchen, hopefully not waking up Sebastian in the process, was completely ruined the second he walked into the room.

Sebastian must have fallen asleep with the TV on the night before because the room was illuminated by the periodically flashing glow of the screen, which also meant that _Sebastian _was illuminated by the glow of the screen.

The fact that he was sleeping on someone's couch, in their living room, where anyone could walk in at any time, obviously didn't mean much to him. At least, he hadn't allowed it to force him to do anything ridiculous, like wear a shirt to sleep in.

Kurt knew this because the blanket that he had brought down from the linen closet for Sebastian to use had slipped down just below his hips. Thankfully, this also made it obvious that he was wearing pajama pants of some kind. He wasn't really able to think much past that because there were abs and chest and perfect collar bones. All with the most confusingly adorable, yet sexy, freckles he'd ever seen dotting those abs and collarbones and chest.

His head was pillowed on one arm while the other was thrown haphazardly over the arm of the couch, which subsequently drew Kurt's attention to Sebastian's biceps. Suddenly Sebastian made a small sound, something between a sigh and a groan, Kurt jumped, attention torn from the blatant objectifying he'd been doing of his _friend_ dammit, Sebastian was supposed to be his _friend_. At least until they talked, but _still_ perving on the guy while he was innocently trying to sleep was just not okay.

_Like Sebastian would mind, _an absolutely terrible voice from somewhere deep, deep in the recesses of his subconscious whispered, _He would probably encourage you._

His eyes darted to Sebastian's face and he was struck by how much younger he seemed to look. His expression was slack with sleep and his mouth slightly opened; it was the first time Sebastian had actually appeared to be innocent to him. At this point the room would probably be illuminated by the red glow of his face alone if the TV were to be turned off.

Another soft sound from the couch sent Kurt practically running for the kitchen; the last thing he wanted was to be caught watching Sebastian sleep. He would never hear the end of it. Never.

He flipped on the coffee maker on first thing then went about digging through the fridge hoping to find something quick and simple to make for breakfast.

"Morning, Princess."

Kurt jumped, managing to smack his head against the refrigerator in the process, at the sound of Sebastian's sleep roughened voice.

He turned to face the other boy, his own greeting falling short when he realized that Sebastian still hadn't put on a shirt.

Sebastian's hair was adorably sleep ruffled and his eyes were only open enough to allow him to see where he was going, squinting against the bright lights in the kitchen. He blinked at Kurt, who was now rubbing at the small bump on his head. "You okay?"

"Umm, what?" Kurt asked sounding a little dazed as he watched Sebastian walk over to the kitchen table and plop down onto a chair. "Oh, yes, I um, I'm good. Good morning!"

Sebastian shot him a bewildered look, "Yeah, okay. Is there coffee yet?"

Kurt turned to face the coffee maker and was more than a little relieved to find that the pot was full. "Yes, there is, and there are several different kinds of flavored creamer in the fridge, some kind of peppermint mocha, some caramel thing, and I think something with vanilla in the name. Which kind do you want?"

Sebastian had laid his head down on his folded arms, "Caramel."

Kurt's lips twitched and he went about pouring two cups of coffee, pulling the caramel creamer out of the fridge for Sebastian and the peppermint mocha for himself. "I was going to make omelets for breakfast, are you awake enough to eat? If you don't have something now you'll probably regret it before we make it to Columbus."

Sebastian let out a jaw cracking yawn as he poured creamer into his coffee before pulling the cup closer, leaning over the mug and seemingly just inhaling while he waited for it to cool. "Sounds good, you're gonna put something besides rabbit food in mine, right?"

"There's nothing wrong with vegetables, Sebastian." Kurt rolled his eyes and pulled a carton of eggs and some milk out before examining the contents of the fridge. "We have plenty of leftover ham, or there's sausage or bacon."

"Ham is fine, thank you, Sweetheart."

"No problem, Honey," Kurt huffed. "After all, I live only to cater to you and provide you with coffee and omelets with some form of meat in them."

Sebastian snickered into his coffee.

"Now would you please go put a shirt on before my dad or step-mom come down here? Or even worse, Finn or Sam."

* * *

Somehow, saying goodbye to his dad on the front lawn with Carole, Finn and Sam all standing next to them, and Sebastian hovering somewhat awkwardly closer to the car, was harder than it had been in the airport when he had first left for New York.

"I know it wasn't easy for you to get the time off to come down here, so don't worry about Christmas," Burt told him.

Kurt's eyes widened, "Dad, of course I'm coming for Christmas, I'll just have to—"

Burt laughed and hugged him a bit tighter, "Stop freakin' out, I just meant that Carole and I are planning to come to you, Finn hasn't made up his mind yet."

"You mean it?" Kurt grinned, turning his eyes to a broadly smiling Carole; he couldn't help but tease a bit, "I'm actually going to get to show you two around the big city? Drag you out to shows, walks in Central Park, all the exhausting, touristy, Christmas in New York type things I can possibly think of?"

"I don't know about all that, but we'll be there." Burt told him, eyebrows drawn together in what might be worry. "Your old man has a bad heart, remember? I can't be runnin' around big cities doing all kinds of crazy stuff. I'll leave some of that for you and Carole to use as bonding time or something."

Carole laughed at her husband and wrapped Kurt up in a hug, "You bet! We'll be there with bells on."

Kurt laughed and hugged her back before turning to Finn and Sam, who had been patiently waiting their turn. "Alright you two, hug away."

Sam was first, with a hug that, quite literally, swept Kurt off his feet.

"Alright! Alright!" Kurt laughed and then laughed even harder when he caught the dirty look Sam was getting from Sebastian. "I said hug, not maul! Evans, put me down!"

His feet were returned to the ground and Sam tightened his grip briefly before letting go, "It was really good seeing you, Kurt. It's pretty boring around here with just Hudson around, especially now that he's practically a teacher."

To his, and Sebastian's he was sure, surprise once Sam let Kurt go he wandered over and gripped Sebastian in a quick one armed hug. "Look after my boy, Smythe! You two have a safe trip, I'm going back to bed, I should _not_ be up this early on a weekend. Hasta la vista, dudes!"

Sebastian might have worn a similar expression if he had been assaulted, Kurt, somewhat used to the insanity, just snorted as he watched the blond walk back into the house.

Shaking his head Kurt turned to Finn with open arms, "Alright, come here and hug me so we can go, there's no possible way Sebastian and I will be able to be in a car for two hours without stopping for coffee, so we need to leave now to make sure we stay on schedule."

Finn laughed but still moved forward to practically crush Kurt with a hug. "I'll miss you bro!"

Kurt groaned when he was released, "I swear, all you boys, it's like if you have to hug then you have to prove your caveman-like masculinity when you do it."

Sebastian snorted.

"Don't say a word." Kurt glowered at him.

"Wasn't going to."

Kurt rolled his eyes and turned back to his dad to give one final hug, "So, Christmas then?"

"Definitely, bud." Burt turned to Sebastian after that, offering a hand to shake, "It was good meetin' you, kiddo."

Sebastian smiled and took his hand, "You too, sir. Hopefully I'll see you when you're in the city for Christmas."

Burt smirked, casting an amused glance at his son, "I'm sure you will."

Sebastian was once again surprised when Carole came over and wrapped him up in a hug, "It was wonderful to meet you, Sebastian. I hope Burt didn't mentally scar you too badly."

That got one of those adorable and genuine laughs that Kurt loved so much, "I appreciate you letting me stay, especially since it was so last minute, and I've had worse mental scaring, much worse, you don't have to worry about me."

With that and a few more "I love you's" exchanged among the Hudmels, Kurt and Sebastian were finally packed into the car and heading out on the road.

* * *

Even with Kurt's prediction about a necessary coffee detour, they still made good time getting to Columbus. It helped that Sebastian drove like someone demon possessed, something that Kurt hadn't been made aware of until they were on the interstate.

The utter terror he had felt being in the car with Sebastian as a driver paled in comparison to the nerves he was working up now that the inevitable Rachel/Sebastian meeting was upon them.

"Where did Young Barbra say she was going to meet us?" Sebastian asked.

Kurt ignored him momentarily in favor of retrieving his jacket and carry-on bag from the hideous, beige, plastic bin he had been forced to place them in in the name of airport security.

Once he had made a show of dusting off his belongings, he turned back to Sebastian, "Um, I think she said that there was a Chili's right next to our gate, and she said she would wait for us there."

Sebastian glanced down at the ticket in his hand, "So, we just have to find our gate, joy. Airports are the most ass-backwards thing that has ever been created."

Kurt snickered and tugged at Sebastian's sleeve, steering them to the right, "I'm pretty sure it's this way."

"You're real cute, smartass."

"We've already established," Kurt sing-songed, "_You're_ the cute one!"

Luckily, it wasn't near as difficult to figure out where they were supposed to be as Sebastian had made it out to be. Of course, the big, glowing red Chili's sign helped a little.

Rachel spotted them before they could spot her, made blaringly obvious by her practically screaming Kurt's name from across the little airport sized restaurant.

"Kurt!" She shouted again as she flung herself at him, "I missed you!"

"Would you calm yourself? It's barely been three days!"

Rachel pouted and pulled away from him, only to intertwine their fingers together in a tight handhold, "Three incredibly long days in which we had almost _no _contact _at all_!"

Sebastian snorted and her eyes were immediately drawn to him. "You."

Kurt groaned and Sebastian's eyebrows shot up, lips quickly turning up into a smirk, "Me?"

"Oh God!" Kurt muttered under his breath, "Please don't embarrass me in the middle of a Chili's in the freaking Port Columbus International Airport."

Rachel simply patted his hand, in what he assumed was meant to be a comforting gesture, before letting go and linking their arms instead. "Don't worry, this won't take long."

She turned to face Sebastian directly, making sure to pull a resigned Kurt with her, "I'm not sure if I like you, Sebastian. Kurt obviously does though, and somehow, you seem to make him happy and I for one, believe that he deserves to be as happy as humanly possible. I know you two aren't actually dating, but we'll see how long that lasts now that certain things have been taken care of, and when it happens I expect you to treat him like a _prince_! Understood?"

"Princess."

Kurt groaned inwardly and Rachel slipped bemused looks from one boy to the other, "Excuse me?"

"You said treat him like a prince, but he's my Princess." Sebastian was grinning at her now.

Rachel turned to Kurt, "Is that meant to be an insult?"

He sighed, "Surprisingly, no, it's not."

She faced Sebastian again, and for a split second Kurt thought she might throw some kind of tantrum. "Fine, however it works for you two, I don't want to know, as long as Kurt finally being treated the way he should be. You've been shockingly adept with your romantic gestures, Sebastian; don't think you can start slacking when you two actually start dating."

"I feel like you just made some kind of allusion to the sex we aren't having," Sebastian told her, looking pleasantly surprised.

Rachel just smiled at him.

"See, this is why I didn't want the two of you anywhere near each other," Kurt bemoaned. "I hate you both."

"Oh sweetheart, you love us." Sebastian grinned at him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him in close.

Rachel giggled at them, "I have to admit, you _do _make a pretty adorable couple."

Kurt scowled, "_He's _the adorable one."

**A/N: Ughh, it's short, but… I'm so tired… and these little fuckers just didn't want to leave Ohio. I SWEAR that the next chapter they will be back in NYC and things will actually happen, like actual story progression or something… crazy talk, I know. Especially considering I planned on that happening like, two chapters ago. This is what happens when a chapter just doesn't want to be written and I end up doing a crap ton of retarded stuff to procrastinate instead of write.**

**My brain isn't actually functioning very well right now, and I haven't decided if I like this at all or not, but I guess it's better than nothing… hopefully? xD**

**ALSO, MY Papa Hummel DOES NOT HAVE CANCER! I just… why would they DO that? Kurt's face still hurts me… Chris Colfer is flawless. Not even going to go into all the other ways that episode was jacked up six ways from Sunday. Except for… why the hell didn't they just stick with the It's a Wonderful Life thing? They could have actually gone somewhere with that. I'm not even sure anyone involved in writing that episode ever actually saw the movie Love, Actually, because I don't see how that episode actually differentiated from any other multi-story line Glee episode. Ughh, this is what happens when no one I know actually watches Glee, I end up bitching in my A/Ns. xD**

**Anyways, I should be back to regular Thursday posting now, so look for the next chapter then. Much love as always, the reviews and whatnot warm my heart greatly, for reals! I heart you all!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Spoilers: I'm mostly ignoring everything that happens on Glee when it comes to this story as of the newest episodes, but there may be the occasional tidbit that slips in from the newest episodes.**

**Rating: PG-13, just leaving a general pg-13 rating here for now to be safe, subject to change.**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

"Hey, intern! Could you run this to Isabelle for me?"

A much harried Kurt turned to accept a large manila envelope with a forced smile, "Of course."

The nameless woman shoved the thing at him before turning and walking away, unsurprisingly without a thank you.

Kurt rolled his eyes and changed his course, having been finally heading for his much needed lunch break, and made his way back towards Isabelle's office.

He honestly didn't know why he bothered; his whole week had passed in a similar state of rushed distraction. The second the flight from Ohio had landed on Saturday and Kurt turned his cell back on; he had pretty much hit the ground running and hadn't been able to stop since. In order to take the trip to Lima he had switched around some hours with two other interns and he was now paying the price.

They had been back for six days now and between the insanity he was experiencing at Vogue and Sebastian's own workload at school, they hadn't even been able to make time to _see_ each other, much less put aside time to have a serious talk.

It was driving him crazy.

Isabelle wasn't in her office when he got there, so he left the envelope on her overflowing desk with a quick note explaining that he had no idea what it was, but that he had been asked to deliver it. With that he bolted as quickly as possible, head down and desperately hoping not to be noticed. He was starving and he needed caffeine like he needed air.

Once he had safely made it through the lobby without being noticed he pulled his phone out to check his messages. He and Sebastian might not have been able to spend any time together or have any potentially life changing discussions about the status of their relationship, but they still made sure to text each other throughout the day.

_From: Sebastian_

_Hey, you're finally off tomorrow right?_

Maneuvering through the crowded sidewalk and making a B-line for the nearest Starbucks, he smiled.

_To: Sebastian_

_Why, yes sir, I am. My day is looking pretty boring as of right now actually, if only I knew a handsome NYU student who wanted to spend the day with me._

It was flirtier than what he would usually send, but he was frustrated, they had been back in New York for six days. Six whole days, and he had been planning for them to talk the day they got back, and Kurt knew that if _he _was frustrated, there was no telling what was going on with Sebastian.

By the time he got a reply he was standing at the head of the line in Starbucks ordering a roasted tomato and mozzarella Panini and a caramel brulee latte, something Sebastian had ordered for him one of the last times they were here before Thanksgiving. Kurt would never actually tell him that he liked it, or that he had started occasionally ordering something besides his traditional mocha, it would make him far too smug.

_From: Sebastian_

_Huh, sounds like you're in luck. ;) Though, I was actually thinking we could do something tonight as well, there's a club I've wanted to go to. You can invite Berry and her beefcake if you want._

Kurt frowned down at his phone as he settled himself at the only empty table in the café, more than a little surprised that Sebastian was okay with _Rachel_ tagging along. Not to mention that with all the time they had spent together they had only ever gone out clubbing once. Even then, Sebastian hadn't even made the suggestion; another intern at Vogue had mentioned the place to Kurt who had decided that it might be interesting to visit a gay club that wasn't Scandals and sans a handsy, irrationally angry, drunk boyfriend. They had definitely had fun, but it was ridiculously hard to maintain a "friends only" relationship with someone when they were grinding up against you in the middle of a dark dance floor.

It only now occurred to him that it was kind of strange that Sebastian was only asking him out to a club for the first time after right at a month of spending time together. It was _Sebastian _after all. Now that he thought about it, Sebastian didn't really mention any kind of partying behavior anymore, certainly not in the last month. Nor did any of his talk of what he had been up to since he had moved to New York include anything like that. He knew things had happened to or around Sebastian after Dave's suicide attempt to make him open his eyes and now, for the first time, he was insanely curious about what those things were.

Shaking his head he forced himself not to think about it anymore, not to mention remind himself that he _had_ promised Sebastian that he could take as much time as he needed to be ready to talk about it.

_To: Sebastian_

_Sounds like fun but, Rachel and Brody? Really? _

Kurt started on his sandwich, sighing happily at having something to eat for the first time since six that morning. He kept an eye on the time, knowing that he wouldn't be able to be gone for more than 30 minutes before someone was calling him back. As it was, he was only able to take a few bites before his phone was chiming with Sebastian's reply.

_From: Sebastian_

_Not saying we have to stay with them all night but, seeing as she IS your crazy, annoying roommate, I thought I might try and stay on her good side. For now. I might not care later._

Kurt rolled his eyes, lips twitching up into a smile.

_To: Sebastian_

_You're so sweet and thoughtful, not to mention oh so kind and caring. :) I'm sure Rachel will be overjoyed. I can't imagine them saying no if they don't already have plans._

_From: Sebastian_

_Don't forget insanely generous. Which I clearly am, being inclined to share my time with you and everything. _

Before he could finish his sarcastic response his phone chimed with yet another text from Sebastian.

_From: Sebastian_

_Whether you have Young Barbra with you or not, meet at mine about 9:30?_

Before he answered he went ahead and shot off a quick text to Rachel asking if she and Brody would like to accompany them. It didn't take more than 30 seconds to get an affirmative from the girl; he highly doubted she had even asked Brody if he wanted to go, even though she had answered for him.

_To: Sebastian_

_Rachel and Brody are on board, though I don't think Brody knows that yet. 9:30 sounds great._

_From: Sebastian_

_Good, I've missed you. :(_

Kurt immediately felt some tendril of insecurity he hadn't even known was there uncoil. Even though he knew there were reasons they hadn't seen each other, most of which involved his own job, part of him had still worried. For two people who were trying to take things slowly things had gone so fast over the holiday. He certainly hadn't intended to introduce Sebastian to his family yet, before they were even dating and then have him stay the night in said family's house. Sebastian had seemed okay with everything, but it didn't keep him from worrying.

_To: Sebastian_

_I've missed you too. You absolutely sure you want me to bring Rachel and her paramour tonight?_

Kurt couldn't help but ask; he still wasn't sure why Sebastian had extended an invitation to them in the first place.

_From: Sebastian_

_Yes, I want to dance with you tonight, tomorrow we're going to have a talk about us. Hopefully their presence will keep me from just jumping you and leaving the rest unnecessary. _

Kurt stared down at his phone before darting his eyes around his fellow Starbucks patrons as though they could see what he was reading, or worse, what he was thinking.

_To: Sebastian_

_And jumping me would be a bad thing? I would have thought you would have a more "talking is overrated" kind of outlook on life. _

_From: Sebastian_

_I swear to God, Princess, you are going to be the death of me. You're the one who wanted to do the talking, and I'm honoring that, by NOT jumping you tonight._

Kurt bit his lip; contemplating telling Sebastian that maybe _he_ had developed a "talking is overrated" outlook on life when he got a text from one of his fellow interns asking if he was on his way back yet. With a sigh he finished off his sandwich and sent her a text letting her knew he would be there in five. He was informed seconds later that he was being sent on a quest for scarves and not to bother coming back to the office beforehand. There was also a short story about some other intern getting the wrong scarves for something or another the first time around and several pictures of what the proper scarves were meant to look like.

_To: Sebastian_

_Fine, ruin my fun and don't jump me. :( I have to go back to work now, someone screwed something up involving scarves and now I have to save the day. I feel like a real life Andy Sachs, only I don't require a makeover, I'm naturally amazing at my job, and I'm pretty sure I would have worshiped the ground that Miranda Priestly's Prada shoes walked on._

_From: Sebastian_

_I'M ruining YOUR fun? I don't think so Hummel, you are the fun saboteur here. Also, I don't know who the hell Andy Sachs or Miranda Priestly are… Have fun at work, I'll see you tonight._

Kurt slipped his phone into his pocket and picked up his coffee and bag before heading toward the exit. Once they managed to talk he would definitely be subjecting Sebastian to his DVD collection.

* * *

When he got home, relieved to have his work day _finally_ be over, Rachel was there to practically attack him the second he walked in through the door.

"Where are we going?" She asked, reminding him of an over excitable, yappy little dog. "I can't believe we've been in New York together for so long and haven't taken the opportunity to experience what the LGBT community here has to offer!"

Kurt rolled his eyes, "Okay, first of all, gay dads or not, you are straight. Second, Bas and I went to a gay club two weeks ago. Third, I have no idea where we're going, Sebastian just said to meet him at his apartment at 9:30."

She huffed, "I'm still quite surprised I got invited."

"I was too actually," his lips twitched as he remembered _why _Sebastian had invited her. "But apparently you actually have a job tonight."

"What?" She followed him into his room, settling herself onto his bed and watching him move around.

"According to Sebastian, there's less of a chance that he'll 'jump me' before we can have our much lauded relationship conversation if you and Brody are with us." He snickered. "In other words, you've become a designated cock blocker."

Rachel giggled at that, "Really? Why ask you out to a club then? If he's so ready to jump you, why not a romantic candlelight dinner where he confesses his feelings for you?"

Kurt snorted, "Really? Are you asking me to make sense of something that Sebastian Smythe did? All I know is that he said something about wanting to dance with me and then tomorrow we would be having our talk."

"Sorry, I forgot who we were talking about for a minute," she rolled her eyes.

"So, did you actually end up asking Brody if he wanted to go? Or is he still completely unaware that he now has plans tonight?"

She laughed, "I saw him a few minutes after I got your text and asked him, he was fine with it. I told him we would stop and pick him up at the dorms on our way; it seemed kind of ridiculous to have him come all the way out here only to have to circle back to Manhattan. Sebastian's apartment is on 5th Avenue isn't it?"

Kurt didn't look away from the mirror where he was holding a teal, slim fit shirt in front of his torso. "Yes, and it's ridiculously amazing, it has three freaking bedrooms and he has a gorgeous view of Central Park."

"His parents seriously pay for all that?"

He snorted, "Apparently the place has been in the family for years, he lived there when he was little."

Kurt couldn't be sure, but it sounded like Rachel was muttering something about how amazing the apartment that _she_ would get when she finally got famous would be even more amazing.

"I'm going to shower," he said, trying not to laugh at her. "We'll need to leave by 8ish if we're stopping at NYADA to pick up Lover Boy first."

Rachel gasped suddenly, causing Kurt to turn away from the mirror where he had begun comparing the teal shirt with a vaguely similar white button up.

"What?!"

"I can't believe I hadn't thought of this yet!" She had that terrifying, vaguely manic grin of hers plastered on her face.

"Thought of what?" He sighed, "Not that I'm completely positive I want to know, but seriously, what are you freaking out about now?"

"Oh, Kurt, once you and Sebastian get everything all worked out we'll be able to double date! You and Sebastian and me and Brody! It will be amazing!"

He stared at her, shirts completely forgotten, "Absolutely not."

"Oh come on!" She pouted at him, "We couldn't ever do it when you were with Blaine and I was with Finn because you two were always complaining about it being weird being on a date with your brother. But now there are no siblings involved! Perfect!"

Kurt shook his head, "The brother thing was just an excuse, Rachel. I'm going to go take my shower now, if you follow me into the bathroom I will not be held responsible for my actions."

* * *

Public transit would never be Kurt's favorite thing on the best of days, but having spent the last hour and 15 minutes listening to Rachel whine about double dates was not making it any better. Even more infuriating had been Brody nodding sagely along to everything Rachel said all the while casting very obviously amused looks at Kurt whenever she wasn't looking.

Rolling his eyes Kurt came to an abrupt stop on the sidewalk outside Sebastian's building and turned to face Rachel.

"Okay, I swear, I will _think _about a double date, just _one_ if you promise not to mention it again for the rest of the night!"

Rachel beamed at him and he could see Brody almost snickering behind her, "Of course, my lips are sealed!"

She mimed zipping her lips shut and he rolled his eyes, "Thank you."

With a deep breath he turned back around and walked towards the door of Sebastian's building startling a bit when the same doorman that had been there the first time Kurt had visited, smiled at him, "Kurt and friends, right? Mr. Smythe let me know you would be coming."

Kurt blinked at him, amused momentarily at the "Mr. Smythe" and not having expected a personal welcome to the building, "Oh, um, yes, Jake right? Thank you."

Jake just smiled and gestured them inside out of the cold, "No problem sir."

Rachel was muttering under her breath again, Kurt once again chose to ignore her.

"Thought you said your friend was a college freshman," Brody said, and Kurt also chose to ignore the emphasis that was put on the word friend, "What the hell does he have on the side?"

Kurt laughed, "Rich parents, he's a self-admitted spoiled brat with only child syndrome."

He mostly zoned out after that, spending the elevator ride getting more and more anxious about seeing Sebastian for the first time after a week.

The loud dinging noise that filled the space to let them know they had arrived startled him out of his musings. Rachel and Brody were bickering about something at this point so he simply shook himself out of his thoughts and rolled his eyes at them before walking out into the hallway.

If he had been alone he probably would have hesitated when it came to knocking on the door, as it was he had absolutely no intentions of giving Rachel the opportunity to ask if he was okay.

He didn't have to wait long for the door to open but when it did his brain just, froze.

Sebastian was wearing a wonderfully tight, dark green henley that just did something kind of amazing for his eyes; the buttons were all undone and the sleeves were tugged up to his elbows, showing off strong forearms. The shirt was half tucked into sinfully tight black jeans, and oh God, Sebastian was giving him one of those looks and he had definitely been standing there saying nothing for far too long.

Rachel giggled behind him and he sighed, "You're um, club wear has vastly improved since high school, not that that would be all that hard to accomplish. Your clothes then were atrocious."

The words lacked bite, and it was unfortunately fairly obvious if both Sebastian and Brody snickering was any indication.

"You don't look half bad yourself, Princess," he stepped aside and gestured them in. "It's still pretty early, but I thought we could go eat somewhere first, granted we can find a place that will cater to Barbra's alien eating habits."

Rachel huffed, "There is nothing wrong with being a vegan, Sebastian."

He rolled his eyes and turned to Brody and offered his hand to be shaken, "Sebastian Smythe, by the way."

Brody shook his hand, smiling pleasantly, "Brody Weston."

Sebastian grinned over at Kurt before turning back to Brody and pointedly looking him up and down, "Oh I've heard all about you, Kurt tells me you like to walk around their apartment naked."

Kurt groaned, it was going to be such a long night.

**Yeah, so, this is only three days late now… Ughh… Unfortunately from Tuesday night through Friday afternoon I had no heat in my house and let me tell you about how hard it is to type when you can't feel your fingers, so I gave up and spent my days off watching Chris Colfer do the Single Ladies dance to try and stay warm. It's so super awesome when your only heat source going out coincides with a freaking cold front coming through. Thursday I was actually completely without power for several hours due to a storm we had the night before (ironically enough the power didn't go out during the actual storm, even though it flickered a lot), yeah, the apocalypse was early at my house.**

**So, I wrote probably half of this last night and the next half tonight, which was a bitch to do working 11-8. Still didn't get everything into this chapter that I wanted.**

**I SWEAR to my non-existent first born child that the next chapter will have "the talk." I actually planned for the whole club scene to happen in this chapter, though I had already admitted to myself that "the talk" wouldn't be happening until chapter 12. Well, now they'll both be in the same damn one. I really, really wanted this update to be longer and I was going to just power through it, thinking that I didn't have to work till 3 in the afternoon tomorrow, then of course my boss asked me to come in early. Yay! I LOVE going into work early! - Read this in a super sarcastic voice with a Texan accent and it'll be like my voice is in your head. So anyways… it's 3:30 AM and I'm tired. Just sayin' working at a bakery during the holidays? It sucks.**

**As usual, super long ass A/N is long… But, I continue to adore each and every person who reviews and favorites and follows and all that super wonderful stuff that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside! =D**

**All of that said, I'm not completely sure when the next update will be, I'm off on x-mas and the day after, which I plan to spend with family and what not. I'll update on Thursday if I have the time to write between now and then, but if I can't it will be as soon as I possible.**

**Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and to those who don't Happy Holidays!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Spoilers: I haven't seen the last four episodes, so this should be pretty safe up to Glee, Actually I think.**

**Rating: PG-13, just leaving a general pg-13 rating here for now to be safe, subject to change.**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

**-Two months later-**

***Quietly uploads new chapter***

**Maybe no one will have noticed… Better yet, hopefully they haven't given up on me…**

***and then walks away very quickly***

It was surprisingly easy to decide where to eat, especially considering Kurt had expected something resembling World War III. Instead, Sebastian had been uncharacteristically accommodating and suggested a sushi place nearby that did amazing, according to him, vegetable tempura rolls and didn't use egg in their batter.

Of course, Rachel couldn't even wait for their drinks to arrive before she opened her mouth.

"I was telling Kurt earlier that if the two of you ever manage to sort yourselves out, we should double date."

Brody laughed into his drink, "I'm pretty sure you weren't supposed to mention that."

She ignored him and turned her familiarly intense gaze on Sebastian.

Sebastian merely lifted an eyebrow at her, "Is this meant to be your diabolical scheme to keep me and Kurt from ever going out? Because I have to say, that actually might work."

Kurt elbowed him, "We already had this discussion, Rachel. I said I would consider it if you could keep your mouth shut, it's truly fortunate that I know you so well."

Rachel rolled her eyes at him, "I don't see why you two are being so weird about this." She gasped and clasped her hands together, her eyes widening with excitement; a look that Kurt knew meant to watch out for potential danger.

"You could skip your rather superfluous, in my opinion, talk and consider _this_ your first date and that way I get my double date and you two get together! Everyone wins!"

"Absolutely not."

"Aww, Kurt," she whined, "Why not?"

Sebastian made an aborted sound that might have been part amusement into his drink and Brody was watching Rachel with an unmistakable fondness.

Kurt scowled at her, "Because, I refuse to let you and Brody be present for our first date."

"Why not?" You were there for _our_ first date!" She gesticulated wildly between herself and Brody.

Brody groaned, "Oh god."

Kurt had to fight off a grin at that reaction, "First of all, I was tricked into that, you asked me to go see a movie with you and when we showed up Brody was waiting for _you_ not _us_. I'm pretty sure that was a surprise for me _and_ him. Second of all, I thought your first date got interrupted by Finn."

Sebastian cast an amused expression at Brody.

Rachel flushed, "That wasn't a date; that was just two friends having a 'getting to know you' dinner together."

"Oh? So you make romantic candle light dinners for all of your friends? I'm disappointed, _I _never got one."

She huffed at him, "I don't know, did you have candles for your friendly 'not date' with Sebastian? You know, the one where you made him dinner before making out with him."

It was Kurt's turn to flush when Sebastian turned to him with a look that was half amused and half questioning.

"Sorry, I don't mean to tell her all of these things, but she always nags it out of me!"

Rachel gasped, "I do not nag! I worry about you, out loud, in your general direction."

"Oh please, you nag," Kurt rolled his eyes and turned to Brody, "All of the time, doesn't she?"

Brody looked absolutely betrayed and Kurt couldn't control the laughter that bubbled up out of him.

"Maybe we should get the waiters attention and order," Sebastian rolled his eyes, looking surprised at himself for being the voice of reason.

Rachel was still staring down Brody, whose beer had become incredibly fascinating. Finally she rolled her eyes and turned to Sebastian, "You're right, I'm actually very excited, the idea of vegan sushi had never occurred to me before."

"Yes, well my suggestions are amazing on a fairly regular basis."

Kurt made a failed attempt to turn his laughter into a cough, "You're so refreshingly humble."

The rest of dinner went by without incident, but that was mostly because Kurt was doing his best to mentally block every single word that came out of Rachel Berry's mouth.

* * *

"Why am I friends with her?" Kurt asked Sebastian as they were leaving the restaurant, Rachel and Brody already several feet ahead of them.

The look he got in return was absolutely hilarious, "I really don't think I'm the best person to ask that, Sweetheart."

"You mean," Kurt gasped and paused for dramatic effect, "You're telling me that Sebastian Smythe actually _doesn't _have all the answers?"

Sebastian scoffed and stopped them, wrapping an arm around his waist so that he could pull him closer. "Only when it comes to you apparently, otherwise I am most definitely all knowing."

Kurt sighed and allowed himself to take a small step further into Sebastian's personal space, "Don't worry, you can't really blame yourself for that, I'm like a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside in a mystery."

"Uh huh, you're a unique snowflake," Sebastian told him, snickering and then proceeded to pull him into a proper hug.

Kurt smiled against the warm fabric of Sebastian's jacket, "Hey! I am the most interesting, unique and talented snowflake there ever was, and I only even get that reference because Finn made me watch Fight Club with him."

"What? Brad Pitt's abs weren't enough of an incentive?" Sebastian pulled back from their hug with a smirk playing over his lips and brought his hand up to brush the back of his knuckles across Kurt's cheek. "And you _are_ unique and talented, but you forgot unbelievably sexy."

His skin tingled in a ridiculously delightful way where Sebastian had touched his cheek and he decided to blame his inevitable blush on the cool night air.

"Hey lovebirds!" Rachel called from a few feet down the sidewalk, "We got a cab, I'm not walking more than absolutely necessary in these shoes."

She didn't bother to lower her voice when she turned back to Brody before sliding into the cab, "They wouldn't consider tonight a date, and they _insist_ they aren't together because they still have to _talk_; but they can participate in epically romantic embraces while gazing longingly into each other's eyes in the middle of a street."

Kurt sighed and reluctantly removed himself from Sebastian's arms, "Just remember, it was your idea to have them tag along."

Sebastian scowled and followed behind him towards the waiting cab, "I knew that was going to come back and bite me in the ass."

* * *

The club was packed.

Unsurprisingly, because really, very little about the former Warbler really surprised him at this point, Sebastian had known the bouncer. So unlike the plentiful amount of people standing outside in the cold, they hadn't had to wait in line.

The main dance floor was split into two levels; the upper, outer level which featured two separate bars and scattered tables, most of which were bar height and lacked any actual seating. The dance floor was sunken, meaning that various drunken patrons were able to stand around the edge and watch _other_ drunken patrons dance.

Brody and Sebastian had obediently wandered up to the nearest bar to fetch drinks about five minutes ago. Kurt had found that to be endlessly amusing, because, while he was trying not to be surprised by any of the boy's actions, an obedient Sebastian Smythe was just that funny.

Rachel had been staring at him since they had been left alone, and as hard as he was trying to ignore her, he knew it was futile at best.

"What is it Rachel?" He shouted over the music, "Try to keep in mind this isn't exactly the location for an over dramatic heart to heart."

"You _are_ going to talk to him tonight, right?" She screamed back.

He rolled his eyes, "I'm fairly certain the agreement was that we would talk tomorrow, not that it's any of your business."

"What?!"

Kurt groaned, he was going to be so hoarse by the time they left this place; he was seriously never going to let Sebastian forget that he thought bringing Rachel Berry to a club was a good idea.

"Tomorrow, Rachel! We're supposed to talk tomorrow!"

She frowned at him, "You shouldn't keep putting it off, I think you should do it tonight!"

"We aren't putting it off! It just makes sense to have a conversation of that magnitude at a time when we haven't been drinking and dancing all night and we can actually hear ourselves think."

Rachel took his hands and squeezed, and dammit they were having a heart to heart, apparently whether he gave consent or not. "What exactly is there to talk about? You two have pretty much been dating since you ran into each other in that Starbucks."

"We're friends Rachel, friends who go out and have fun together just like I would with any other _friend_! Being attracted to one another doesn't mean we can't take things slowly, and we're talking _tomorrow!_" It was infuriatingly difficult to put emphasis on a word when he was yelling at the top of his lungs to be heard.

She rolled her eyes at him, "Kurt, I have never seen you as intimate with anyone as you were with Sebastian 20 minutes ago on a fairly crowded street, in private or in public, and yes, that includes when you were with Blaine!"

His answer was interrupted by Sebastian shoving a mint, lime and cherry garnished drink in front of him. Actually there seemed to be a ridiculous amount of cherries in the glass.

"It's a Mai Tai, Princess," Sebastian appeared to be trying very hard not to laugh, "I asked for extra cherries."

"You are such an ass." Kurt told informed him, but accepted it anyway, taking a tentative sip and deciding that he liked it despite the utter ridiculousness of the drink.

"I have no idea what you're implying, I just thought you would like some extra cherries, and since we'll be taking a cab home it's not like you'll need to play designated driver tonight."

Kurt ignored the pointed look Rachel was giving them and continued sipping at his drink, fixing Sebastian with an unimpressed gaze over the rim of his glass.

He finished the drink fairly quickly, not that it was much of a feat considering the thing really was more cherry than liquid. He carefully placed the glass on the table next to them and took one of the many cherries out of the glass. He placed the fruit between his lips, careful to keep eye contact with Sebastian, and fighting off the urge feel silly, hollowed his cheeks around the cherry, plucking the stem off and tossing it into the glass. He was rewarded with Sebastian's darkened eyes following his tongue as it chased a small amount of escaped juice.

He didn't even bother trying to hide his pleased grin; instead he grabbed hold of Sebastian's sleeve and started pulling him towards the dance floor, "Dance with me!"

In what felt like no time at all they were moving together on the dance floor, pressed close, both in a very simple desire to _be_ close and in defense against the very crowded dance floor. There was a time not so long ago that Kurt would have laughed in the face of anyone who told him that he and Sebastian Smythe could move so well together. There was never more than an inch or two of space between them at any time, but they managed to move in harmony.

One of Sebastian's hands was pressed securely to the small of Kurt's back, something that Kurt had begun to associate especially with Sebastian. It shouldn't have been possible to feel so safe in the middle of an overcrowded club in New York City with a mix of Maroon 5's One More Night playing loud enough to make his head spin, but he did. It was cheesy and cliché and just so absolutely ridiculous, but so very true.

Kurt brought his hands up, letting his fingers glide over Sebastian's chest so that he could wrap his arms around Sebastian's neck. He shifted so that he could talk into Sebastian's ear, without needing to yell quite so loudly.

"What are we doing?"

He pulled back to see Sebastian gazing down at him, lips twitching into a smile while his eyes remained serious. The grip on Kurt's back tightened and he was pulled forward so that there was no longer any space between them. It might have been considered near obscene if they were actually still dancing, but they had given up the pretense and were merely swaying together at that point.

"We're dancing, Sweetheart," the words were spoken directly into Kurt's ear and Sebastian didn't move away after he'd spoken. Despite the fact that it was absolutely stifling, Kurt still shivered at the warm puffs of air that kept hitting the spot just behind his ear as Sebastian breathed.

Kurt groaned and pulled away just enough to look into Sebastian's eyes again, "This is so stupid."

Sebastian's brows furrowed and he opened his mouth, presumably to ask Kurt what was wrong. Kurt didn't give him the chance to actually form the words. Instead, he tangled his fingers into the unbuttoned collar of Sebastian's shirt and pulled him forward.

"Sebastian!"

Kurt jolted at the shout, which came from his left and much closer than he would have liked. He turned to stare at the short brunette that had interrupted them with no small amount of irritation.

"Sebastian, man," the guy was so obviously drunk it was almost painful, "We _never _see you out, this is awesome, you gotta come say _hola_ to everybody."

Before Kurt or Sebastian could say anything the guy kept talking, "Gotta say _hellllooo_!" He winked obnoxiously at Kurt, "Then you gotta tell us who your _friend _is."

He grinned and leaned into Sebastian's personal space, in what Kurt could only assume was an attempt to speak privately with him, obviously forgetting that he was shouting as he did so. "He's very pretty Bastian, stone cold _foxxxyyy_ one, this guy."

Sebastian held out a hand to steady the man, who was now swaying on his feet, "Yeah, I'm aware. Kurt, this is Ryan, we're in a study group together, Ryan, not that you'll remember this at all, but this is Kurt."

"_Yesss_," Ryan leaned away from Sebastian's personal space and straight into Kurt's, "I'm _Ryaannn_, it's very nice to meet you Kurtie!"

Kurt physically shuddered at being referred to as something as awful as "Kurtie." "The pleasure is very clearly all yours."

Ryan grinned stupidly at him, "You two have to come do shots with us!"

"Uhh," Kurt shook his head immediately, "Actually, Sebastian should probably help you find your friends, and _I _need to go find ours, there might have been some kind of—incident or something."

"Yes, I completedly understand!" Ryan gave him a quick salute before turning back to Sebastian, "Come Sebby-webby! Help me find my peeps!"

Sebastian glared at Kurt, a look just intense enough that coming from anyone else Kurt might have been a little worried.

"Hurry back," Kurt grinned at him and blew a kiss, "Sebby-webby."

"Don't worry, _Kurtie_ I will, apparently there was a conversation earlier in the day about me not jumping you, and how I somehow assumed you wouldn't be _trying_ to make it harder for me, which needs to be revisited."

Kurt laughed as he watched Sebastian practically drag Ryan away.

Rachel and Brody were taking a break from dancing at the same table at the edge of the room they had been occupying earlier.

"Why is Sebastian going to the bar with that guy?" Rachel yelled at him before he had even stopped walking.

He sighed, "They go to school together, he interrupted us while we were dancing, Sebastian is taking him back to his friends."

"Yes," Rachel grinned at him and offered her water bottle. "I saw the two of you _dancing_."

Kurt groaned, "Shut up."

He took drink from the proffered water bottle before handing it back, Rachel just kept grinning at him.

Brody nudged him, "Looks like you aren't your boy's only fan."

Kurt turned back to the bar which Brody had pointed at, where a group, including a very handsome, blond had joined Sebastian and Ryan.

"He's probably another one of Sebastian's friends from school," Kurt said, though he couldn't quite stop his fists from clenching when the nameless blonde's hand settled on Sebastian's lower back.

Rachel shrugged, "Not that I'm saying he's that kind of person, but technically the two of you _aren't_ actually together. It's not like there is anything that would be keeping him from being with Mr. Tall, Blond and Gorgeous over there."

Kurt's eyes remained trained on Sebastian, narrowing when the hand on his back moved lower. He was only moderately relieved by how quickly Sebastian moved away from the touch.

"You know what; I'm going to go fetch Sebastian." Kurt announced and then started his way to the bar without waiting for a reply from either Brody or Rachel.

He had absolutely no idea what his plan was exactly until he got about five feet away and suddenly Sebastian turned in his direction. He had that look in his eyes that seemed to be saved solely for Kurt, the one that never failed to set off the swarm of Sebastian connected butterflies in Kurt's stomach.

He paused for a few seconds, long enough to get a quizzical lift of a brow from Sebastian. With a deep breath he started forward again and didn't stop until he was in Sebastian's personal space.

Sebastian smirked at him, "Something wrong, Princess?"

He ignored the question and brought his hands up in the same manner he had before their aborted kiss. This time, however, there was nothing to stop them.

Kurt yanked at Sebastian's collar and wasted no time in pressing their lips together, completely uncaring of their audience. He took a tiny step forward so that he could feel the long line of Sebastian pressed fully against him. He was rewarded by Sebastian tilting his head so that their lips slanted together perfectly and his hands coming up to that spot on the small of his back and applying pressure, as though he were trying to bring Kurt impossibly closer.

Kurt finally pulled away after what felt like hours but was probably mere seconds, "I think we should go, there is a very overdue conversation that we need to have."

"Rachel and Brody?" Sebastian asked, looking as though he couldn't care less about the answer.

Kurt pressed another kiss to the corner of Sebastian's mouth, "They'll figure it out I'm sure. Just in case, I'll send Rachel a text."

Sebastian glanced over his shoulder at the people he had been talking to and gave them a quick wave goodbye before turning back to Kurt. "Lead the way Sweetheart."

**Sweet baby Jesus…**

**I… can't even… Ughhh…**

**Sorry… Seriously, I had intended to take off the week of Christmas, or the week after, I don't even remember now. So that was intentional, then a woman at work broke her leg, and another went on sick leave. My work schedule since the beginning of January has been RIDICULOUS, lemme tell you about how insanely hard it is to get anything accomplished with one day off a week. So writing kind of took a backseat to everything else in my life, which sucks, because I definitely would have preferred it the other way around. Of course it got to the point that I was so stressed out that even when I did manage to find time to sit down and write I freaking couldn't write. I suck, basically, is what I'm saying here.**

**Anyways, this… is short, painfully so considering how long it took, so many apologies. It was also written in short bursts over two months, not counting the two times I just deleted everything and started over because I hated it. I haven't even reread over it tonight, because I feel like if I do I might not post it and I really want to get something posted. So, here is hoping it's not as awful as I've convinced myself it is.**

**I also owe everyone my first born child, because I'm pretty sure I said something about my first born and having "the talk" in this chapter. Or I swore on it, or something, either way, good luck with that one guys. xD I'm also pretty sure I told at least one person that I would be done like a week or two ago… and… yeahhh… **

**I'm really hoping to be able to get back on my Thursday posting schedule, so I'm very tentatively telling you to watch for the next chapter next week around this time. Much love to reviewer's, and the people who like and follow and favorite this story, I probably would have just given up on even trying to write this thing or completely forgotten about it, but it makes my day every time I get an e-mail notification, so thank you all very much!**


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